Assembly Votes to Move Up State Primary to March

Seeking to increase the state’s clout in the presidential nominating process, the Assembly on Friday passed and sent to the Senate a bill that would move California’s presidential primary from June to the first week in March.

Rushing to complete action before a self-imposed deadline Friday night, the Assembly also approved legislation to protect Mono Lake from water shortages and to require teen-age welfare mothers to get their high school diplomas.

The presidential primary bill, approved on a 50-16 vote, would move California from the end of the nominating season to near the beginning, leaving only the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary before Californians would have their say.

Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), author of the bill, said the current system allows other states to choose 85% of the delegates to the presidential nominating conventions before California voters go to the polls.

“Our citizens have very little impact on choosing the presidential nominees for both major parties,” Costa said. “The current system makes California a bridesmaid.”

Although Gov. George Deukmejian has said he would support moving the primary, he has linked his support to the Legislature passing a proposal to elect the governor and lieutenant governor as a ticket. That proposal was shelved by a Senate committee earlier this year.

Kevin Brett, the governor’s press secretary, said the two issues are still linked in Deukmejian’s mind.

“If they send the presidential primary bill to his desk without the other legislation, the chances for a veto are very strong,” Brett said.

On another election issue, the Assembly narrowly passed a bill that would let voters decide whether to create a system of public financing for legislative elections. Backers of the legislation contend that the bill would reduce the influence of campaign contributions from special interest groups.

The bill by Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) would give the voters the chance to overrule Proposition 73, approved last year with a provision banning the use of taxpayers’ money in state and local campaigns. The measure was approved by a vote of 41 to 34 and sent to the Senate.

Vasconcellos argued that the voters should have another chance to decide the issue since they also approved Proposition 68 in the same election, which called for taxpayer financing of campaigns. However, the public financing provision of Proposition 68 never took effect because Proposition 73 received more votes.

The Mono Lake measure, introduced by Assemblyman Phil Isenberg (D-Sacramento), is an attempt to end a decades-long dispute over how much water should be diverted from streams that feed the lake and shipped to Southern California.

The bill, passed by a vote of 54 to 12, would require the state Department of Water Resources and the city of Los Angeles to set a water level for the lake that would preserve its environment and protect the nesting and migratory birds that inhabit its islands.

At the same time, the legislation would pay for a host of environmental projects by resolving a lingering dispute over $432 million loaned by the state to the Metropolitan Water District and other water contractors in the 1960s.

Under the compromise, the water contractors would be required to pay more than $200 million for environmental, recreational and agricultural cleanup programs--with Mono Lake receiving top priority. The bill now goes to the Senate.

The welfare bill by Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Union City) is designed to help young mothers get off welfare by requiring them to complete their high school educations. Approved by a vote of 70 to 4, the bill would apply to 16- and 17-year-old parents who receive welfare.

The measure takes advantage of a provision in the new federal welfare law that allows a state to require teen-age welfare mothers as young as 16 to get their high school diplomas as a condition of receiving their welfare checks. With Assembly passage, the bill was sent to the Senate.

Earlier Friday, Deukmejian signed a much broader bill by Eastin that would conform the state’s workfare program to the new federal law, including imposing the requirement that welfare parents with children as young as 3 participate in the work and training program.

In another action, the Assembly passed a bill by Assemblyman Johan Klehs (D-Castro Valley) that would give a 50% tax credit for the purchase and installation of “telecommuting” equipment--items used as a partial or total substitute for commuting to work.

Equipment covered by the bill would include telephones, personal computers, modems, fax machines and copy machines. The measure, passed by a vote of 54 to 8, now goes to the Senate.

The Senate, meanwhile passed a bill that would require the installation of fire-extinguishing systems in high-rise buildings. The measure by Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) was prompted by the May, 1988, fire at the First Interstate Bank Building in downtown Los Angeles that killed one person. The Senate sent the legislation to the Assembly on a vote of 21 to 13.

And Deukmejian signed a bill requiring all licensed day-care homes, no matter how small, to install smoke detectors. The bill by Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) was prompted by a fire at a Huntington Beach day-care center that killed two infants earlier this month.