Bill Restoring School Funds Sent to Deukmejian

The Assembly on Thursday voted final legislative passage for a compromise bill to restore $71.5 million in funds that Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed last year for elementary and high schools and community colleges.

A 56-8 lower house vote sent the measure to Deukmejian, who is expected to sign it. Authored by Assemblywoman Teresa P. Hughes (D-Los Angeles), the bill passed the Senate on a 31-4 vote.

Passage of the legislation leaves only the governor’s signature remaining to end a yearlong controversy over the funding of certain kindergarten through 12th-grade programs and for community colleges that have lost enrollment.

The Los Angeles Unified School District would receive $18.8 million under the bill; Los Angeles community colleges would get $7.8 million.

Last summer, Deukmejian vetoed $141 million from the state budget in programs for economically disadvantaged students in big-city school districts, for busing students in sparsely populated rural regions, and for community colleges that have suffered a reduction in students in recent years.

The governor vetoed the funds in hopes of pressuring the Legislature into going along with his controversial proposal to tap investment profits of the Public Employees Retirement System to help finance educational and other programs.

Senate Democrats, led by President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), scuttled Deukmejian’s plan.

The governor eventually agreed to restore half of the vetoed funds. But he also rejected follow-up legislation aimed at forcing him to take up the rest of the slack with increased state revenues. Senate Democrats failed to override his veto.

Hughes’ bill represents a compromise plan to be financed from a variety of sources, including the state’s general fund, tidelands oil revenues and by reducing certain future contributions to employee pension programs. Since Deukmejian originally vetoed the money, the state’s general fund has been swollen with unexpected revenues.

Hughes called it a “good compromise” reached after considerable negotiations with the Administration and all other interested parties.