11th-Hour Maneuvering : Lure of Federal Money Cemented Pact for Collider

Not even lawmakers carrying legislation aimed at getting the world’s largest atom smasher built in California can explain what the $4.4-billion superconducting super collider actually will do, other than bring a fat federal payroll to the state and create thousands of jobs.

But that was enough for Gov. George Deukmejian, a handful of rural Democratic legislators and the slick governmental relations arm of the University of California to revive the collider legislation from near death and secure its passage Wednesday night.

Deukmejian climaxed two days of topsy-turvy politics Thursday when he signed bills authorizing the sale of $560 million in bonds to finance the state’s share of the super collider project and guaranteeing unprecedented participation of women and minority-owned business firms in the project, if it comes to California.

Telegram of Notification

Deukmejian also sent a telegram to Secretary of Energy John Herrington notifying him of approval of the financing package.

The governor, in a typical understatement, said in comments released by his office, “I’m glad that all parties got together. . . .”

The quietness of the bill-signing belied the sometimes frenzied, always bruising battle waged to get the collider legislation passed.

Liberal Democrats got the fight going, demanding that the legislation contain strong affirmative action language. That aroused conservative Republicans, who warned they would derail the entire project because of their opposition to setting affirmative action goals in bond legislation.

The concern was that these goals would make the bonds difficult to sell and that the state could not find enough qualified minority investment bankers to handle the sale.

And then there was the issue of the super collider itself, a project so esoteric that its supporters say its main purpose is to add to the “understanding of the fundamental structure of matter,” as if that explained it all.

25 States Bid

California, one of 25 states bidding for the collider project, is proposing that the atom smasher be built on one of two sites, both within an hour’s drive of the state Capitol.

The collider, if built, would be the largest scientific instrument in the world. It would be constructed at least 50 feet underground, in an oval tunnel 53 miles in circumference. Inside the tunnel, to be 10 feet in diameter, there will be two rings of 10,000 super-magnets that will propel protons at one another at nearly the speed of light.

Scientists want to know what will happen upon collision of these subatomic particles, which are impossible to see with the naked eye.

The nature of the project excited University of California officials and made quick converts of others, both because it could lead to new scientific breakthroughs as well as mean an economic bonanza to whichever state lands the project. It is estimated that the facility will need a permanent work force of as many as 3,500 scientists, technicians and others, with an annual budget of $270 million.

Supporters say it was the attractiveness of the project that eventually got the legislation passed and kept them busy working behind the scenes to put the deal together even when many considered the project dead Tuesday night.

“We just didn’t quit,” said Sen. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), whose largely agricultural district contains one of the proposed sites.

The project was in the most trouble when Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), angry over a weak Republican counteroffer to his affirmative action proposal, refused to allow the collider legislation to even come up for a vote and then adjourned the house Tuesday night. Brown knew that the Assembly would not meet again until after the next day’s 11 a.m. deadline set by the U.S. Department of Energy for submission of bids.

Alternative Strategy

But university officials, including UC President David Gardner, joined Garamendi, the bill’s author, Assemblyman Sam Farr (D-Carmel), and Deukmejian Administration officials in devising an alternate strategy.

At Deukmejian’s request, Gardner reconvened the California Collider Commission, set up to oversee the state’s bid, in a Wednesday morning emergency session that allowed the state to submit its bid at Department of Energy headquarters in Washington with less than 10 minutes to spare.

In the meantime, Deukmejian told Garamendi and Farr that he would accept the affirmative action goals sought by Brown and other Assembly Democrats. Basically, the goals are intended to direct 15% of the financial windfall to firms owned by minorities and another 5% to women-owned businesses.

The details were worked out during a private luncheon in the governor’s office, more than an hour after the bid was officially submitted in Washington. Attending were Deukmejian, Brown and other legislative leaders. The agreement paved the way for quick passage of the collider bills in the Assembly and Senate about nightfall.

William B. Baker, a UC vice president who spearheaded the university’s collider operation, said he was convinced that the collider bid had been killed when he went to bed at midnight Tuesday.

But at 7:30 the next morning, he learned that legislators and others interested in the bill had decided to hold a meeting of the Collider Commission to authorize submission of the state’s bid.

‘Down to the Wire’

“It was down to the wire, no doubt about that,” said Baker, who substituted for UC President Gardner at the emergency meeting in the governor’s office. “You couldn’t believe what it was like, sweating it out like that.”

Farr, describing the frenzied negotiations in New Age terms Wednesday night, said: “If there is a political Harmonic Convergence it has happened here in the last 24 hours.”

Despite enactment of the legislation, questions raised during the bruising fight are likely to be around for a while.

The entire bid is built around a complex revenue bond financing scheme to raise the $560 million believed necessary to win the high-stakes sweepstakes for the collider project.

Unable to come up with that kind of money because of the state spending limit approved by voters in 1979, lawmakers recently have been looking to bonds and revenue sources exempt from the limit to provide opportunities for creative financing. And the bond scheme they came up with for the collider project does not require voter approval.

In effect, the deal is built around taking out the equivalent of second mortgages on state buildings such as prisons and university dormitories.

Present holders of the deeds to the structures, such as the University of California or the Department of Corrections, would turn over title to the state Public Works Board. The former deed holders, in turn, would agree to lease back the buildings over a 20- or 25-year period. Bonds would be issued to private investors based on the promise that the debt would be paid off with the lease payments. Money to pay off the leases would come from revenues the state received from offshore oil fields, which are exempt from the spending limit.

Voters Could Be Involved

Under the legislation, the state--if it ever wanted to--also could ask the voters to approve general obligation bonds to finance the project.

And that is just the financing.

Many lawmakers do not know what the superconducting super collider is or will be once it is built.

During the Assembly debate Wednesday night, Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) told other lawmakers: “You really don’t know what you are buying for all of the money you are committing. Not one person yet has stood on this floor and been able to explain in an intelligent way exactly how it’s going to benefit this state.”

Waters, a close ally of Brown, still voted for it. She said she acted on behalf of minorities and women because “if you are going to spend a lot of money and you are going to throw it away, we want a piece of it.”

Staff writer Mark Stein in San Francisco contributed to this story.