Senate Defies Veto Threat, OKs $76 Million for Schools

The Senate defied a threatened veto by Gov. George Deukmejian and Monday voted final legislative approval to a $76.2-million educational finance bill that would restore funds that the Republican chief executive cut last year.

The action set the stage for a veto override attempt. And the author of the bill, Democratic Floor Leader Barry Keene of Benicia, predicted that it will be the first successful attempt to overturn a Deukmejian veto.

“I think we are going to see our first veto override on this bill,” Keene said, noting that parents, teachers and school administrators strongly support the legislation. He said they can be expected to “crank up the heat” even higher for an override.

No Deukmejian veto has been overturned by the full Legislature.

The bill, which would take effect during the current school term, went to Deukmejian on a bipartisan 25-to-7 vote over pleas by GOP leaders to delay action anywhere from two weeks to three months until the state’s revenue picture becomes clearer.

Passage also occurred against a statewide backdrop of teachers being put on notice that they may be fired because of a shortage of funds, and of schools severely cutting back or eliminating programs that had received state financing for the fall term only.

Deukmejian warned last week that he would veto the Keene legislation and a virtually identical bill by Assemblywoman Teresa P. Hughes (D-Los Angeles) because they failed to contain a source of financing other than the general fund. He deplored them as a “hoax.”

Noting that the Keene measure would draw from the general fund, a gubernatorial spokesman said after passage of the bill that “the measure is unacceptable to the governor.”

It is in the general fund that Deukmejian wants to maintain a surplus for unexpected emergencies. Currently, the Administration estimates the sum at about $550 million and wants it to increase to $1 billion by July of 1988.

Keene, citing figures from the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget analyst, argued that tax revenues flowing into the general fund in the last three months ran $669 million higher than the Administration had anticipated, of which $300 million represented a net revenue gain.

Fiscal advisers to Deukmejian have said that the unanticipated revenue may be only a temporary phenomenon and the funds should not now be committed to permanent school programs.

Republican lawmakers, clearly uncomfortable with having to choose between voting against their governor or heeding the appeals of constituents to vote for the bill, sought to buy more time by delaying a vote, a move rejected by Keene.

“This is urgent,” Keene said. “School districts are having to cut way back in order to cope with a shortage of funds. . . . This is not a hoax. There are ample dollars for this bill.”

Four Republicans--Sens. Marian Bergeson of Newport Beach, Robert G. Beverly of Manhattan Beach, William A. Craven of Oceanside and Becky Morgan of Los Altos Hills, joined 21 Democrats in voting for the bill. The seven no votes were cast by Republicans.

It takes a two-thirds vote, or 27 in the Senate and 54 in the Assembly, for the Legislature to override a gubernatorial veto. The Assembly on March 5 approved the Keene bill, 57 to 15. However, votes to approve legislation do not necessarily translate into votes to override a veto.

The Senate in 1984 voted to override Deukmejian’s veto of a school construction bond bill, but the Assembly refused to go along.

Deukmejian last year vetoed half the funds that the Legislature provided in extra aid for economically disadvantaged students in urban schools and for busing children in sparsely populated areas. As a result, he left only six months’ worth of financing available.

The governor advocated paying for the programs during the second half of the year with funds from a surplus in public employment pension programs. Under heavy pressure from retirees, Senate Democrats refused to go along.

The Keene bill, which originally passed the Senate in January on a 34-to-2 vote, constitutes an attempt to spend general taxpayer funds rather than pension money to finance the second half of threatened school programs.

The bill includes $53.3 million for kindergarten through 12th-grade programs and $22.9 million for community colleges.