Legislators Face Matters of Policy and Purse Strings : Confirmation of Successor to Unruh May Preoccupy Returning Lawmakers

State legislators, who last month went on vacation leaving behind a backlog of unfinished business, will return Monday to find a major new issue on the agenda: the big-stakes task of confirming a new California treasurer.

Never before has the Legislature been given the opportunity to confirm the nomination by a governor of a treasurer or any other elected statewide officer. Before passage of a constitutional amendment in 1976, legislative consent was not required to fill such vacancies.

Now, Republican Gov. George Deukmejian and the Democratic-controlled Legislature must contend with the selection of a successor to Democratic political powerhouse Jesse M. Unruh, who died of cancer Aug. 4.

Among the uncertainties is whether Deukmejian, who plays his political cards close to the vest, will submit his nominee to the lawmakers in the hectic final four weeks of their current session or hold back until the Legislature reconvenes in January.

“The governor regards this appointment as very important and in the past has been known to take time and care to make a quality appointment,” observed press secretary Kevin Brett. “The possibility does exist that the legislative session will conclude before the governor is in a position to make an appointment.”

As the Legislature winds up the session, the selection of an Unruh successor is certain to preoccupy the lawmakers--particularly if Deukmejian selects an ambitious Republican with the potential to use the job as a political springboard.

But important unresolved issues also must be dealt with. Among them: authorization of a $1.1-billion tax rebate, deciding whether to require parental consent for teen-age abortions, and devising a strategy for confronting the AIDS epidemic.

Other front-burner issues include a possible last stab at reviving a state-administered bilingual education program, imposing new smog controls on motor vehicles, conforming the California tax system to the new federal tax code and establishing monopolistic beer sales regions.

For Deukmejian--the only Republican among the statewide officeholders--the treasurer’s vacancy offers an opportunity to make it less lonely at the top.

The governor has not signaled whether he intends to appoint a Republican, but it is widely presumed that he will do so. To win confirmation, however, a Republican would have to be acceptable to Democrats in the Assembly and Senate.

The Democrats, well aware that the treasurer’s job offers statewide exposure and great opportunity for campaign fund-raising, may try to insist on a caretaker with no political ambitions, either for higher office or reelection in 1990.

Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), noting that the treasurer must oversee billions of dollars worth of bonds, investments and pension funds, said many of his colleagues would “prefer the appointment to be someone of less than partisan political coloration, but who has major credentials in this area.”

Leading Candidates

He noted that the names of some GOP senators have surfaced in speculation and they are “certainly candidates who under normal circumstances we can live with.” Mentioned most often are Sens. Ken Maddy of Fresno, William Campbell of Hacienda Heights, Robert Beverly of Manhattan Beach and John Seymour of Anaheim.

Also talked about are some outside the Legislature, including Clair Burgener, longtime Deukmejian confidant and a former GOP state chairman, congressman and legislator; Tom Stickle, a San Diego financial executive and political backer of the governor, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum. If Deukmejian appoints Schabarum, a Republican and former legislator, the governor would have the added bonus of being able to name his successor to the county board.

Ronald Reagan was the last California governor to fill a vacancy in a statewide office, doing so twice. In 1970, he appointed H. P. (Pat) Sullivan as a caretaker secretary of state and in 1974 he named state Sen. John L. Harmer as lieutenant governor.

In 1976, the voters ratified a constitutional amendment approved by the Legislature that made such appointments subject to confirmation by the Legislature. But because of the way the amendment is worded, there is some dispute over whether a nominee must win confirmation of both houses to take office. A preliminary opinion of the attorney general has held that if one house approves the nominee and the other does not, the nominee can still take office.

Roberti said unless the legal issue is quickly resolved it is likely that the matter will be postponed until January.

Tax Rebate Dispute

Clearly at the top of the legislative agenda in the weeks before adjournment Sept. 11 will be the $1.1-billion surplus that Deukmejian wants returned to taxpayers--specifically, income taxpayers. Democrats, meantime, are lining up behind proposals that would return the money to sales taxpayers.

Democrats contend that the surplus was created by sales as well as income taxes and that some low-income individuals who are not subject to income tax, but presumably do pay sales taxes, should be allowed to share in the rebate. Under one proposal, this could occur by suspending sales tax collections during the heavy shopping months of November and December until the surplus was consumed.

Deukmejian maintains that the rebate, either in the form of a check or a credit, should go to income taxpayers because they created the biggest chunk of the surplus. This procedure also would be easy and relatively inexpensive to administer.

If the two sides are unable to agree, and many see this as likely, it will probably be up to the voters next year to decide the matter. Several competing initiatives dealing with the surplus are proposed for the ballot.

More Flexible Laws

Various initiatives have been suggested that would rewrite the 1979 law that requires the rebate and make it more flexible so that additional sums could be spent on education and transportation. Another measure would ask voters whether they want the sum rebated or earmarked for schools.

Perhaps the most emotional legislative fight will occur in the Senate over an Assembly-passed bill that would require a pregnant minor to receive parental consent or a court order to undergo an abortion. Such legislation has been blocked in the Assembly for years, but anti-abortion lawmakers there finally managed to win passage of a parental consent bill in June.

Similar legislation has been approved by the Senate in years past, largely in the knowledge that it would be killed in the Assembly. Now, with the roles reversed, the Senate will be under intense pressure from pro-choice advocates to scuttle it. Likewise, anti-abortion forces, sensing victory, are expected to wage an all-out lobbying campaign.

A formidable task facing Deukmejian and the Legislature is crafting a coherent and clear-cut state policy on AIDS, the lethal disease that, some forecasts say, may claim 37,000 Californians by 1991.

Protection of Society

One approach in the Legislature proposes what critics call the “criminalization” of AIDS, shifting the emphasis away from protection of AIDS sufferers to the protection of society--even if the protection comes at the expense of AIDS victims.

Other bills emphasize the importance in fighting the disease through education--both in the public schools and elsewhere--among high-risk groups such as homosexuals and intravenous drug users.

One major bill pending in a Senate committee would require that each new inmate at a state prison be tested for exposure to AIDS and authorize the testing of the entire convict population. Those who tested positive could be isolated.

In an attempt to make Assembly committee chairmen as knowledgeable as possible about AIDS before they begin dealing with the Senate bills, Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) scheduled a seminar for Monday of renowned AIDS experts to educate the lawmakers about ramifications of the disease on public health, minority communities, obtaining insurance, services available for victims and financing the fight against AIDS.

Other issues pending before the Legislature include these:

- BEER--Despite strong opposition from consumer groups, the Legislature appears ready to pass heavily lobbied legislation that would grant monopoly territories to beer distributors and, its critics contend, eventually lead to higher beer prices. The proposal touched off a high-spending lobbying battle that succeeded in winning the bill’s approval in the Assembly, where a similar measure died in 1985. However, Deukmejian vetoed a similar bill that dealt with the wine industry and consumer activists are hopeful that the beer bill will get the same treatment.

- INSURANCE--Consumer advocates seeking reforms of insurance industry practices and relief from high premiums get one more chance to plead their case in the Assembly before the Ways and Means Committee. Two of the toughest bills before the panel would regulate insurance rates and remove the industry’s exemption from state antitrust laws. These measures are in trouble, however, both being opposed by the industry and a large bloc of Republicans and Democrats. These lawmakers appear ready to embrace a weaker bill.

- TAX CONFORMITY--Final negotiations on a bill to at least partly conform California’s income tax system to the overhauled federal tax code is expected soon. The Senate and Assembly have passed two Democratic measures that would selectively conform the tax systems while adding some new tax breaks for business. A Republican measure that would come closest to linking the California and federal systems has stalled in the Senate. But its backers believe that many of the provisions of the stalled bill will find their way into any compromise bill that reaches Deukmejian.

- BILINGUAL EDUCATION--Efforts to revive the state’s bilingual education program along traditional lines are shrouded in uncertainty. The program expired this summer after Deukmejian vetoed for a second consecutive year a bill that would have extended it. The measure proposed some changes to give parents and local school districts a greater voice in how bilingual programs would be run, but Assembly Republicans urged the veto on grounds that the changes still failed to provide enough local flexibility.

- TOLL ROADS--The concept of establishing toll roads, long unacceptable to the Legislature in a state where freeways have ruled for at least three decades, suddenly has found a degree of popularity. One reason is that California is struggling with unprecedented traffic congestion. One Assembly-passed bill authorizing any county to construct toll roads is considered virtually dead in the Senate. However, advancing are two measures that would allow toll roads in Orange County if they were built parallel to existing freeways. Opponents fear that if such roadways were authorized in Orange County, other counties soon would seek the same authority, leading to a statewide patchwork of toll roads and freeways.

- SMOG--The fight against air pollution continues. One Assembly-approved bill contains a comprehensive rewriting of California clean air laws. It would give local air pollution control districts new authority to enforce state air quality requirements, which are tougher than federal standards. Another bill, by Speaker Brown, would enlarge gasoline vapor recovery canisters already required on motor vehicles. In addition, the recovery systems would have to be engineered to recover fumes in addition to those that escape through the carburetor. Auto manufacturers oppose the measure on grounds it would unnecessarily drive up the cost of a vehicle. Already, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has proposed requiring the enlarged recovery systems on all new cars in the 1990s.

- LAWSUITS--In a rare agreement, organizations representing California’s cities and counties joined with trial lawyers in backing a package of proposed legislation to scale back liability judgments against local governments. In exchange for backing by trial lawyers--whose influence helped sidetrack similar efforts in past years--the local officials agreed to back away from a proposed ballot initiative that would dramatically limit judgments against private businesses as well as government agencies. The officials warned, however, that they might reconsider if the package of proposed legislation is not approved before lawmakers adjourn for the year.