Budget Writers Vote to Slash School Aid

Legislative budget writers voted Monday to cut financial aid to public schools by $300 million but left open the possibility that the money could be restored if Gov. George Deukmejian agrees to go accept more optimistic revenue forecasts.

Members of the budget conference committee, who slashed more than $1 billion from the proposed $45-billion state budget last week, voted 5 to 1 to reduce the level of school aid.

The action nearly completed the committee’s work on major spending items in the proposed budget.

Republicans on the committee, who indicated earlier that they might not support the budget because of the partisan nature of some of the Democrats’ spending reductions, said they were ready to vote for it.

“At this point, we’re just anxious to get the budget to the governor,” said Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach).

The Legislature, already nearly two weeks behind its constitutional deadline to pass a budget, is scheduled to begin its monthlong summer recess Friday.

In related developments, Democrats, despite Republican opposition, scrambled to put together tax legislation aimed at raising from $550 million to $800 million in new revenues. The bills included a straight income tax increase proposal carried by Sen. Alfred E. Alquist (D-San Jose) and a measure by Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento) that would speed up the method of payment of individual and corporate taxes so that the state could take in more money next year without actually changing tax rates.

The Isenberg bill seemed to have the most support because Democrats think it is the only kind of tax measure that could get the approval of Deukmejian, who is threatening to veto any bill that even looks like a tax increase.

Senate and Assembly tax committees held hearings on two of the bills, but took no action.

Sen. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), chairman of the tax committee and a member of the budget conference committee, said if lawmakers reach agreement on tax legislation, most of the major budget cuts made earlier by the Conference Committee may not be necessary.

But Republicans indicated that they would fight the tax measures, accusing Democrats on the conference committee of voting for the $300-million cut to public schools “to extract a maximum amount of pain” so that Californians will demand a tax increase.

Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose), chairman of the committee, said Democrats want to cut education funding because they feared that if they do not Deukmejian will take the money from health programs to balance the budget. Democrats, he said, believe “deeper cuts in health are more horrendous than deeper cuts in education.”

Deukmejian proposed a 4.1% increase in basic funding for public school programs from kindergarten through high school. The budget proposal adopted by the committee would cut the size of the increase in half but calls for restoration of the second half of the cut if Deukmejian adopts the more optimistic projections of the way the economy will perform that are being made by the legislative analyst’s office and the Commission on State Finance.

John Mockler, a lobbyist for local school districts, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, said “a 2% cut hurts” and could require districts to make up for the money by delaying the purchase of textbooks, laying off employees or adopting other equally painful economy measures.

Lawmakers from both parties are wrestling with the problem created by faulty budget projections by the Deukmejian Administration. Income tax receipts will be $2 billion lower than expected during the current and upcoming budget years. Deukmejian last month proposed a combination of budget cuts and tax increases but left lawmakers facing an $800-million deficit when he did a flip-flop and backed away from his tax proposal.

Times Staff Writers Richard C. Paddock and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this story.