GOP Lawmakers Balk at Putting Issue on Ballot : Chances Fading for Border Sewage Cleanup Proposal

With time in the legislative session running out, chances for placing an ambitious bond measure before California voters to clean up sewage that spills across the Mexican border appear to be slipping away.

Backers acknowledged that the “Tijuana sewage” bill, as it is nicknamed, is hopelessly caught in an election-year political stalemate that shows no sign of breaking before the Legislature adjourns for the year later this month.

“It doesn’t look good,” said Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista).

Although there had been uncertainty for months whether Gov. George Deukmejian might veto the bill, which was authored by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), the question now is whether the governor will ever get it.

Legislative leaders from both parties and the Republican governor had reached a compromise agreement on a package of bond measures for the November ballot. But maverick Assembly Republicans, who have enough votes to block any bills that need two-thirds approval, were vowing this week that they would not allow any more bond measures on the ballot.

Already, $1.8 billion worth of bond measures--more than ever placed before California voters in a single election--are on the November ballot. Those measures are for protecting drinking water and building classrooms, college facilities and prisons.

But awaiting final approval in either the Assembly or Senate are $550 million worth of bond measures to equip safe school buses, build libraries, combat toxics and clean up sewage and contaminants that cascade into San Diego and Imperial counties from Mexico.

As the Assembly adjourned for the day Thursday, Brown said there would still be time to enact the bond measures and have them placed on the ballot. But Assembly GOP Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale said Thursday that he can--and will--block any further bond measures for this year’s ballot.

Working a trade-off to force Deukmejian’s hand, Democrats had tied a $150-million toxics clean-up bond proposal that the governor wants to five others, including the Tijuana sewage bill, that Democratic leaders want. The border cleanup proposal was reduced in those negotiations from $150 million to $100 million, and legislative sources said everyone except Nolan agreed to the package.

Although Deukmejian has repeatedly questioned the wisdom of a unilateral border cleanup effort by California, he was apparently willing to allow the Tijuana sewage bill, and some other bond measures, to become law without his signature.

But now Nolan appears to be the greater obstacle. Nolan said Thursday that he does not have serious philosophical problem with the border cleanup bill. And he said he has always felt that the bond bills should be considered individually, instead of the package Democratic leaders are insisting on.

“If they wanted (the) Tijuana sewage (bonds), they should have made adjustments elsewhere,” the Republican leader said Thursday.

All four Republican Assembly members from San Diego will most likely abandon Nolan if the border cleanup bill does come up for a vote.

“I’m going to vote for it. There is no way you could vote against it,” said Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-San Marcos).

But even with those four GOP defections and all 47 Democratic members, the measure would still be three votes short of the 54 needed for passage.

Election officials had said that this week was the deadline for adopting bond measures, but a spokeswoman for Secretary of State March Fong Eu acknowledged Thursday: “There is no hard and fast deadline.”

The spokeswoman added, however, that it will be extremely difficult to meet all legal requirements, and to print and distribute 9 million ballot pamphlets, if the Legislature does not take final action on November bond measures by the end of next week.