Assembly Rejects Bill to Fund Centers for Retarded

Turning a deaf ear to more than 1,000 demonstrators chanting outside the Capitol, members of the Assembly on Tuesday rejected a $25-million emergency funding bill to keep open 21 state service centers assisting mentally retarded and disabled Californians.

Democrats and Republicans voted along party lines in rejecting each other’s efforts to provide an injection of cash to keep the centers operating through June 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

Without the money, administrators for the centers say they would have to begin closing their doors April 1, although some may have to cease all but minimum operations as early as mid-March.

Lawmakers of both parties indicated, however, that they expect to reach a solution to the funding problem before the centers are forced to close. But they appeared far from a compromise Tuesday.

The centers provide support services for about 90,000 mentally retarded people and others suffering from such disabilities as cerebral palsy. Without the services, many would have to live in state institutions.

Many direct services to the disabled, such as monthly living grants and schooling, will continue even if the centers ultimately are forced to temporarily close their doors.

The problem involves a cash shortage that developed during the current budget year, when the Deukmejian Administration was denied a request for federal funding. Even under the darkest scenario, the centers would reopen when the new 1989-90 fiscal year begins July 1.

In Tuesday’s votes, Democrats first rejected Republican amendments that would have provided a special $25-million loan from the motor vehicle license fund to keep the Department of Developmental Services service center program afloat. Gov. George Deukmejian supports the loan proposal because he is still confident of getting federal funding. Democrats put up 42 votes, to 29 for Republicans, to table those amendments.

Without the amendments to guarantee a source of money, Republicans refused to vote with Democrats for the bill. The bill received majority approval in a 44-1 roll call, but fell 10 votes short of passage because it needed 54 votes--two-thirds of the Assembly membership--to pass as an urgency measure.

The votes left lawmakers from both sides angrily pointing fingers at each other.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), author of the Senate-passed bill, said efforts by Democratic Assemblyman John Vasconcellos of Santa Clara to defeat the amendments were “a political smoke-screen” designed to force a tax increase if financing for the program cannot be found.

“It is unconscionable and immoral to hold the funding of this bill,” Seymour said after the vote.

Vasconcellos, chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, responded that Republican efforts to borrow the money are “utterly irresponsible.” He and other Democrats argued that the money problem will only get worse during the next budget year, when the state is expected to be about $1.6 billion short of what it needs to finance its entire budget.

Vasconcellos contended that the state has enough money right now to provide full funding.

While the debate was under way, demonstrators were rallying on the steps of the Capitol. Organizers of the event estimated that about 1,500 caseworkers, disabled people and others turned out to press for passage of the Seymour bill. They chanted, listened to speeches and waved homemade signs that said, “Save Our Programs,” “Don’t Cut My Services,” and “Don’t Handicap the Disabled.”

Julius F. Gaillard, director of the Golden Gate Regional Center in San Francisco, led the demonstration. After the vote, he said supporters of the programs for the disabled hope to stay out of the partisan battle.

“We’re working very hard not to point fingers,” Gaillard said. “We have no position one way or the other in terms of how the legislation should go. We are attempting to pursue a nonpartisan course. We just want the bill passed.”

One of the speakers, Assemblyman William J. Filante (R-Greenbrae), promised the crowd that lawmakers eventually will agree on a bill. “One way or the other, we’ll work it out,” he vowed as the placard-waving demonstrators cheered.