Deukmejian Threatens Veto of School Aid

Gov. George Deukmejian on Wednesday warned Democratic leaders in the Legislature that he plans to veto bills that would restore $76.2 million in vetoed state school aid unless the lawmakers find the money necessary to pay for it.

It would be a “hoax” for the Democratic-dominated Legislature to send such legislation to his desk without the proper financing, the governor charged in a letter to the leaders.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) promptly called on Deukmejian to stop the “name calling.”

The exchange was yet another in a series of verbal battles between the Republican chief executive and Democratic legislative leaders over the sanctity of an Administration budget surplus that has been whittled down from $1 billion to about $500 million.

Restoration Measures

Deukmejian sent his message in letters to Roberti and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) regarding a pair of restoration measures passed by the Assembly last Thursday.

If the Senate concurs in Assembly changes to the bill, it will go to the governor.

“Neither bill cites a specific funding source,” Deukmejian said, adding that without this ingredient, “I will have no choice but to label such action for what it is, a hoax, and to veto whichever measure reaches my desk.”

Roberti said a recently announced $466-million increase in state revenue could provide the extra money needed for schools.

The Administration, however, argues that much of the revenue gain may be temporary because it was created by people paying their taxes unusually early this year. They did so, officials note, to get back early tax rebates that resulted from the large deductions they took in the final year of the old federal tax law.

Investment Profits

Deukmejian vetoed the school funds in hopes of pressuring the Legislature into going along with his proposal to tap investment profits of the Public Employees Retirement System to help finance education programs. But Senate Democrats, led by Roberti, rejected the governor’s plan.

“By this threat to veto those bills,” Brown said, “he (the governor) is holding innocents hostage to an unpalatable and unworkable political policy.”

The $76.2 million includes $53.3 million for kindergarten-through-12th-grade programs, including money for economically disadvantaged students and for busing students who live in sparsely populated areas.

Another $22.9 million is earmarked for community colleges to help make up for declining enrollment aid.