Speaker’s Plea for Easing of Tax Law Given Little Hope

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown said Tuesday that he has asked Republican Gov. George Deukmejian to consider supporting a bill that would allow tax increases and appropriations by a simple legislative majority, rather than the two-thirds vote now required.

The proposal by the San Francisco Democrat to waive the two-thirds majority vote in the Senate and Assembly was made during one of his periodic meetings with the Republican governor, Brown said.

Some of the changes suggested by Brown would need voter approval because they would amend the California Constitution. The two-thirds requirement for approval of tax increases was put into the Constitution by voters in 1978 when they passed Proposition 13, the landmark property tax initiative.

Brown’s proposal would substantially expand the scope of periodic budget talks the governor has been holding with legislative leaders. But a Deukmejian spokesman said there is little likelihood that it will be taken seriously.

“The proposal received a chilly reception from the governor and Republican leadership,” said Kevin Brett, Deukmejian’s press secretary. “We suspect that if the Speaker brought this constitutional amendment before the Legislature, it wouldn’t fly. Republicans are not going to be amenable to anything that would make it easier for tax increases and spending proposals to go through the Legislature.”

Deukmejian initiated the talks in January, saying he hoped that the discussions would lead to an overhaul of what he considers overly restrictive laws requiring automatic budget increases and fixed levels of expenditures for health, education and welfare programs. Lifting the restrictions would allow Deukmejian to freeze health and welfare benefits for welfare recipients and others at current levels and help him balance his proposed $47.8-billion budget. But Democrats so far have refused to act on the suggestions.

Last Thursday, Deukmejian publicly criticized majority party lawmakers for ignoring his proposals and renewed threats to slash $200 million from mental health programs and make other significant spending cuts if they do not act. Brown struck back at the governor during his biweekly news conference.

“The governor in his posturing has decided what should be on the (negotiating) table and predetermined that those would be the parameters of negotiation,” Brown complained. “(Deukmejian) says unless you agree to wipe out the meager increase for the aged, the blind and the disabled, then I’m going to cut the mental health thing. Well, that’s not the way you do negotiations. What you do is you put everything on the table.”

Brown said that Democrats want talks with the governor to include both a discussion of the two-thirds vote requirement on money bills and a possible tax increase.

Deukmejian, Brown said, has so far refused to discuss either.

The Speaker’s comments reflect the frustration Democrats have in passing tax and budget bills. Democrats could easily muster simple majorities in both houses, holding 47 of the 80 seats in the Assembly and 24 of the 40 seats in the Senate. But the two-thirds requirements mean that Democrats need 54 votes in the Assembly and 27 in the Senate, making it essential that they get Republican support to pass major spending bills.

“If you are trying to solve the budget problem in this state, one of the problems of the budget is that you can’t get Republicans to vote for anything,” Brown complained.

The Speaker told reporters at his Capitol news conference that “maybe we ought to rethink whether or not all of us should be at the mercy of an organized minority group.”

Brown acknowledged that the proposal to suspend the two-thirds requirements might be impractical, since Republicans would be giving up what little leverage they now have. But the Speaker said that Deukmejian must allow tax legislation to enter the discussions he has been holding with legislators.

As the dialogue between Brown and Deukmejian indicates, the budget problem stems from a variety of factors. But it is rooted for the most part in the unexpected drop-off of more than $1 billion in tax revenues last year that played havoc with the budget and led to what some officials maintain was a real deficit.

Deukmejian denies that there was a deficit, but budget moves made to deal with the revenue shortfall whittled the state’s once-healthy reserve of $1 billion down to practically nothing. Finding revenues to replenish the reserve and dealing with the requirements of Proposition 98, the successful November school-financing initiative, have strained the budget to the limit.

Deukmejian said his proposal to freeze cost-of-living adjustments and suspend legal spending requirements would save the state $337 million.