Peace Tells County: Stick With ‘Gang of 5’ to Get More Funds

If San Diego County supervisors want the county’s health and social service programs to get a fair share of state taxpayers’ dollars, they should stop suing the state and instead line up behind a group of dissident Democrats who are trying to upset the balance of power in the state Assembly, supervisors were told Friday.

Assemblyman Steve Peace, a Chula Vista Democrat, used the county board’s annual luncheon with San Diego legislators to solicit support for the so-called “Gang of Five,” a group of Democrats, including Peace, who are challenging the leadership of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

Peace said the move against Brown, a San Francisco Democrat, is in the best interests of San Diego County taxpayers, who he said are the victims of a power structure that favors Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area at the expense of the more suburban and rural counties.

“I think we’re at the point now where you’ve got to draw a line in the sand,” Peace said.

GOP Alliance Planned

He said the insurgent Democrats hope to team with Assembly Republicans and amend the state budget this year in a way that shifts tax dollars away from the urban areas, which are represented mainly by the liberal Democrats who have controlled the Legislature for most of the past two decades.

Republicans, who hold 36 seats in the 80-member Assembly, already have enough votes to block passage of the budget, which needs 54 votes to be approved by the lower house. They have used that power in the past to squeeze concessions out of the Democrats at budget time. But with five or more dissatisfied Democrats, the GOP would also have the 41 votes needed to amend the budget on the Assembly floor, rather than simply voting it up or down.

Such a move would please the county supervisors, who in the last two years have filed four lawsuits against the state in a running battle to win more state dollars for health and social service programs in the county. County officials contend San Diego would be getting at least $130 million more each year from the state if funds were allocated fairly.

Supervisor Susan Golding pledged that the supervisors would try to unite with their colleagues in such counties as Riverside and Orange in an effort to pressure lawmakers to go along with the plan Peace described for a pact between Republicans and moderate Democrats.

But Golding and the other supervisors said they have no intention of dropping the lawsuits, which they said have attracted the notice of the Sacramento lawmakers and administrators who decide how the tax dollars are distributed.

“The suits have gotten them to the table to admit that there is an equity problem,” said Supervisor Brian Bilbray.

Supervisor George Bailey said the county is “getting a heck of a lot more attention” from state officials than before the lawsuits were filed.

“I don’t think, if we ever have to withdraw our lawsuits, that this is the time,” he said.

Irritation Factor Cited

But Peace, who served on the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee until he was removed in retaliation by Brown earlier this year, said the lawsuits only irritate legislators, who use the legal actions as an excuse to give San Diego programs short shrift.

“They use it to give San Diego that extra little twist,” Peace said of his colleagues. “Every time the politicians can send a message to San Diego, they do it.”

State Sen. Marian Bergeson, a Republican who represents a broad swath of rural North County, said the Legislature next year will attempt to overhaul the way California finances local governments. Bergeson, who as chairwoman of the Senate Local Government Committee would play a key role in shaping such legislation, said the job won’t be done in 1988 because this is an election year.

Bergeson struck a more conciliatory tone than Peace, recommending that the competing interests get together to find a new method that doesn’t hurt any county’s position.

“If we say we’re going to take it (money) from Los Angeles to give it to other counties, you’re just going to get into a big battle,” she said.