Bradley Has ‘Secret’ Tax Hike Plan--Deukmejian

Gov. George Deukmejian, promising to protect Californians against tax increases in a second term, claimed Friday that Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley has a “secret plan” to raise taxes if he is elected governor.

In a pep speech to workers at his campaign headquarters, the Republican chief executive boasted that during his first term he has vetoed $3.5 billion in “excessive” spending and complained that his Democratic opponent has unfailingly criticized him for doing so.

Sharpening his assault on Bradley’s fiscal policies as mayor, Deukmejian claimed that it is therefore reasonable to assume that “if Tom Bradley had been governor during the past four years . . . there would have been a $3.5-billion tax increase on the people of California.”

Borrowed Play

Then, borrowing a play from President Reagan’s reelection game book, Deukmejian sought to link the policies of Bradley with those of Walter F. Mondale, the Democratic presidential candidate whom Reagan trounced in 1984.

“It is no wonder that Walter Mondale called Tom Bradley his favorite mayor because those seem to be the same kind of old-time political policies that have been followed by people like Tom Bradley and Mondale and some of the other Democratic Party leaders for years,” Deukmejian said. “But it is a policy that has been rejected by the people.”

Deukmejian, calling his opponent “Tax Hike Tom,” told about 20 campaigners and reporters: “I am convinced that he has a secret plan that, if he becomes governor, he is going to raise taxes on the people of California just as he has raised the taxes on the people of Los Angeles four times.

“I am going to continue to protect the California taxpayers and make sure their taxes are not increased.”

Bradley campaign spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers replied that in spite of Deukmejian’s 1982 campaign promises that he would not raise taxes, “over the course of the last 3 1/2 years he’s raised taxes some $2.4 billion. Tom Bradley has balanced the budget of the City of Los Angeles for 13 years in a row without a general tax increase.”

Deukmejian suggested that part of Bradley’s “secret plan” involved repealing Proposition 4, a voter-approved initiative in 1979 that imposed limitations on state and local government spending by tying it to growth in inflation and population. Revenue collected in excess of the limit would be returned to taxpayers.

Stand on Prop. 4

Bradley, along with California business leaders and others, has indicated that the revenue limitation law should be repealed or adjusted to make it more flexible for needed programs. Deukmejian said Proposition 4, which is expected to affect state spending for the first time next year, should not be tinkered with before it is given a chance to work.

Deukmejian, long opposed to what he calls general tax increases, specifically mentioned rejecting hikes in sales, income and business taxes during a second term. Asked about possible raises in such things as automobile fees or other “revenue enhancement” devices, the governor said he believes they would also fall under the Proposition 4 limitations.

As part of his program to restore California to fiscal health during his first year and a half in office, Deukmejian sponsored a program that excluded increasing general taxes. It did, however, expedite the collection of residential property taxes, increased motor vehicle fees, abolished solar energy conservation tax credits and extended the sales tax to vending machine sales and home video rentals.

Debate persists whether the $2.4 billion raised during his first term constituted tax increases, as critics maintain, or merely closed loopholes, as defenders contend.

On other matters, Deukmejian adamantly refused to discuss Bradley’s public raising of the politically sensitive issue of his race in the campaign last weekend when the mayor appealed for votes without regard to the color of his skin.

‘Not Going to Comment’

“I’m not going to comment at all upon the race issue,” Deukmejian said, saying he did not do so when he ran against Bradley four years ago or when he ran for attorney general in 1978 against Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who, like Bradley, is black. “I’m not going to comment upon it in this campaign.”