Senate Snubs Governor on $53.4-Million School Bill

The Senate, ignoring the opposition of Gov. George Deukmejian, sent a $53.4-million public schools funding bill to the Assembly on Thursday on a 34-2 bipartisan vote.

The bill, also expected to be passed by the lower house, restores money that the Republican governor vetoed last year to provide extra financial aid to urban and rural school districts.

Deukmejian, in vetoing the money from the $38.4-billion budget for the current fiscal year, had hoped to pressure lawmakers into going along with a proposal to help finance school and other programs by taking $283 million in investment profits from the Public Employees Retirement System.

But lawmakers in the Democrat-led Senate passed the education bill without agreeing to the transfer of the pension fund surplus.

And Democrats, in the first floor fight of the new legislative year, also fought off Republican attempts to amend the bill in a way that would allow selective vetoes by Deukmejian.

Majority-party leaders expressed fear that Deukmejian would cut special financial aid to urban school districts while agreeing to finance programs in smaller districts that have heavily Republican constituencies.

“Funds earmarked for urban districts have repeatedly been struck from the budget by the governor,” said Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, arguing against the GOP-backed amendment.

Sen. James W. Nielsen (R-Rohnert Park), the Senate GOP leader, argued that the bill carried “a very high price tag” that would invite a veto by the governor. He said his amendment would give Deukmejian the flexibility to pare down spending any way he saw fit, thus making the legislation more attractive to the governor.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), the Republican Caucus chairman, cast one of the no votes against the bill. He warned other legislators that without an amendment, the bill would invite “a certain veto” because it did not provide the revenue to pay for the programs.

The amendment, needing the support of a majority of the legislators voting, failed on an 18-18 roll call despite getting the support of four conservative Democrats who joined Republicans.

The bill’s author, Sen. Barry Keene (D-Benicia), said the legislation was the result of a careful political compromise that weighed Republican concerns about the needs of rural school districts against those of urban Democrats hoping to get more money for schools in their cities.

Keene warned Republicans that passage of their amendment would threaten Democratic support, because many of them represented urban school districts that would be helped by the bill.

“Adoption of the amendment would have left me with a dead bill,” he said.

The bill provides $43.4 million to urban school districts to help finance special problems of educating economically disadvantaged students. Money is allocated to school districts on the basis of such factors as the number of children from welfare families attending school and the percentage of enrollment of minority students.

About half the money would go to the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to budget analysts.

Of most appeal to Republicans is a provision of the bill allocating $10 million to small school districts, chiefly to help them defray the extra costs of providing school bus systems in lightly populated areas.

Deukmejian originally vetoed $106.7 million from the urban and rural school programs, citing a shortage of state funds. But last year, under pressure from the Legislature, the governor agreed to restore half the money.

The governor, both personally and through aides, has told legislators that he will oppose full funding of the programs until they give him the revenue to support it.

Keene said, “We are obviously going to have to engage in some negotiation with the governor in order to get the bill signed.”