Today Could Be Big

California can stop slipping into mediocrity, and it can happen today, if just a few state legislators are willing to stand up in the chambers of the state Assembly and Senate and declare: “Stop. Enough.” California can halt the erosion of public services today if the Democratic leaders in the Assembly and Senate and just a few responsible Republicans are willing to acknowledge that cutting the new state budget by millions now will cost California untold billions tomorrow.

It will not take a lot of political courage or any real sacrifice. All that legislators need do is recognize the folly of the fiscal bloodletting in Sacramento this past week and be willing to support a one-time adjustment in state tax revenue flow.

The modest speedup in tax collections, sponsored by Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento), is not a tax increase. It would not even offset the unintended 1987 tax windfall that precipitated the budget crisis. The $556 million in the Isenberg plan would, however, make it possible to restore some of the more brutish cuts made by the Senate-Assembly budget conference committee in vital programs like aid to public schools, the universities and the courts.

As legislators take up the budget and tax bills today, they should ponder the population projections issued Tuesday by a Washington research firm. Los Angeles County will have another million people by the year 2000, when today’s first-graders will be just out of junior high. The major metropolitan areas will grow as much as a third. Los Angeles will become the nation’s No. 1 metropolitan area. The forecaster said that Southern California is developing into “a very major regional world center.”

But will California government be ready to accept the mantle of No. 1, to be world-class? Not with a budget that fails even to cope with today’s growth. Not with a budget that dooms California to more years of declining public service. Not with a budget that says California no longer is willing to pay the price of excellence in its classrooms, hospitals, parks, libraries and courts.

Today could be the turning point. Today California could decide to meet the future on its own terms rather than to let other forces control the state’s destiny.

Republicans say that George Deukmejian will just veto any tax adjustment, so why bother? But the governor will not veto, not if he and legislative leaders of both parties realize that the penalty for continued political feuding and one-upmanship is public scorn for all. Not if the governor and legislators understand that it is their responsibility to keep the California dream alive for future millions by making an investment in the future.

Today a few bold men and women can make a difference for California. But the hour is late. The roll call is near. The choice is theirs.