Assembly Panel Sends 2 Budget Plans Out to Floor

The Assembly Ways and Means Committee, caving in to pressure to act on Gov. George Deukmejian’s $44.5-billion state budget, sent two spending plans out for floor votes Monday even though they call for spending far in excess of available revenues.

The action, brought about by Republicans who were aided by a handful of Democrats, paves the way for appointment of a conference committee later this week after procedural votes in the Assembly and Senate.

Lawmakers on the fiscal committee approved the budget on a 13-0 vote, with most Democrats on the 23-member committee refusing to vote. Five Democrats joined eight Republicans in sending the budget out.

“The fight is over,” said Assemblyman William P. Baker (R-Danville), vice chairman of the committee.

Baker was referring to both the committee fight and the larger war over the budget, which had centered on the need to make an additional $800 million in budget cuts after Deukmejian withdrew his plan to raise taxes on businesses and individuals by $800 million.

Budget cuts or revenue increases are necessary because of a $2-billion drop-off in expected income tax receipts over two years caused by a miscalculation.

Despite the action, it will be impossible for the Legislature to meet the deadline set in the California Constitution, which requires it to pass its final version of the budget and send it to the governor by June 15.

Identical Versions

The Assembly and Senate versions of the budget approved by the committee are identical to ones that were approved by the respective houses nearly two weeks ago. They contain about $600 million more in appropriations than the budget being proposed by Deukmejian. And that does not count the revenue gap created when Deukmejian dropped his tax plan. Unless the conference committee can agree on massive spending cuts, which does not seem likely, Deukmejian may be forced to cut $1 billion or more from the proposed budget.

Republicans initially voted against the Assembly’s $45.1-billion version of the governor’s budget, saying they wanted to send it back to the Ways and Means Committee to make further cuts.

An impasse developed when Democrats vowed that they would not release the budget until Deukmejian told them how he planned to make the additional budget cuts.

Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose), chairman of the budget committee, flatly declared that he was willing to hold the budget up for most of the summer unless Deukmejian revealed his plan for making the cuts.

But he could not persuade enough Democrats to join in his holdout, and lawmakers close to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who wants the budget to go to the conference committee, joined the Republicans in sending the budgets to the floor.

Vasconcellos, clearly unhappy with the action, left the committee room immediately after the vote without commenting.

One of the Democrats who voted for the budgets, Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), said she voted with Republicans simply to get the budget to the conference committee, which will negotiate a final version of the spending plan.

Waters said she feared that, unless the impasse was broken, “I could see us sitting around here for the next three weeks.” She also said she thought the Legislature would be portrayed as “irresponsible.”

Though she gave in, Waters criticized Deukmejian for not providing the Legislature with a proposal to balance his budget after he withdrew his tax plan. She called Deukmejian “an irresponsible man who does not care whether or not we get a budget. Somebody has to bite the bullet.”

Baker said that Deukmejian did not get involved “at all.” The Republican lawmaker said the governor “will be happy to get (the budget) in whatever form we send it to him” so that he can make the necessary cuts.

In another development, state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said he would like to see the top rate of the state income tax raised from 9.3% to 11% to raise $800 million to close the budget gap. He said that at the very least the rate should be raised to 10.3%, a level that some Democrats are pushing for.

Honig, during a Capitol news conference, argued that the current budget problem is due to reductions in the top income tax rate, which had been 11% until it was changed in 1987 as part of an overhaul of state taxes to conform with changes in federal tax law. He argued that it would be fairer to raise the taxes back up to 11% rather than reduce appropriations to schools and other state programs.

The schools chief said the 1987 tax change led to a massive windfall for the wealthiest Californians, and that the budget cuts resulting from it will “be paid for by schools, law enforcement, senior citizens and health care.”