Compromise Plan to Give Counties $110 Million in Aid

Gov. George Deukmejian and legislative leaders reached agreement Thursday on a plan to provide California’s counties with an additional $110 million in state aid, a compromise earmarking $30 million for Los Angeles County.

They reportedly were still apart on other measures that could help counties financially.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), emerging from a meeting between Deukmejian and legislative leaders in the governor’s office, said the issue of general state aid “has been put to bed.”

The plan was to amend the compromise proposal onto legislation already pending on the Senate floor.

Night of Work

With the Legislature scheduled to adjourn for the year at midnight tonight, legislative leaders said their aides planned to work through Thursday night in an effort to reach agreement on other pieces of the county aid package.

These include a Deukmejian proposal to turn over an additional one-quarter cent of the state sales tax to counties, which would mean about $650 million, along with responsibility for financing a number of health and welfare programs.

Another unresolved dispute centers on a proposal for the state to take over the $350-million cost of funding county courts. The governor is demanding changes in the judicial system to speed up trials as the price for state takeover of court funding.

The agreement on a general aid increase resolves a dispute over funding formulas that has lingered from a budget fight earlier this year.

The Legislature, in the budget it sent to the governor in July, allocated $88.9 million to the counties in the form of a block grant that local governments could use any way they wanted. Deukmejian had no problem with the amount of money but vetoed budget language allocating the aid among counties.

Deukmejian, in his veto message, complained that the distribution formula did “not treat all counties equitably, particularly the small and rural counties.” He asked for “a more straightforward and impartial formula.”

The new formula reportedly meets the approval of both urban and rural counties.

Lawmakers, as part of the agreement, also boosted the amount of aid from the original $88.9 million to $110 million.

This was reportedly done in part to satisfy Los Angeles County, a key player in the negotiations. The county wanted, and obtained, $30 million.

Los Angeles County could use part of its money to help shore up its financially struggling network of emergency trauma centers. Separate legislation has been pending that would allocate $9.9 million just for the county’s trauma centers. Last July, Deukmejian vetoed $30 million, earmarked for Los Angeles County’s trauma centers, from the state budget.

‘Disengagement’ Plan

One of the issues yet to be resolved is whether the Legislature will pass Deukmejian’s proposal to give counties an additional one-quarter cent share of the sales tax to help defray soaring costs of medical, law enforcement and other programs.

Deukmejian’s so-called “disengagement” plan called for turning the additional money over to counties, along with responsibility for a number of health and welfare programs.

Democrats have balked, fearing the counties might allow some of the programs to starve.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) said the issue is the toughest to resolve “of all the issues we talked about.”

“The governor wants disengagement, and I appreciate his reason,” Roberti said, acknowledging the need to increase financial support for counties.

Roberti said he objects because the state would turn over the money “with no guarantees that they are going to pick up a number of costs that in the past they have cut. . . . The area of health care is one that concerns us. If we give them disengagement, there has to be some strings, and that’s a problem.

“It’s difficult in so short an amount of time to reach agreement on that, but we are going to try,” Roberti said.

Another major unresolved issue is the proposal to transfer responsibility for financing the court system from counties to the state.

Deukmejian has linked the state takeover of costs to a plan he is pushing to change court procedure. Brown said a thorny problem for Democrats is Deukmejian’s desire to try out a system that would limit or eliminate the procedure allowing attorneys to question potential jurors. Also being discussed as part of a possible deal is a legislative proposal to create 106 new judgeships.