State Funding Pact ‘Up in the Air,’ Honig Says; He Hints Nonsupport

Unless education gets a better deal, school leaders say, a complex agreement on transportation and education financing recently negotiated by Gov. George Deukmejian and the Legislature will not have their support when it goes to the voters.

“Right now, I’d say the whole deal is up in the air,” Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said in an interview. “They cooked us on some issues. Why should we sign on now unless we see some evidence of good faith?”

Honig was referring to education’s support for the agreement announced June 30, which includes lifting the 1979 Gann limit on state spending; revising the recently approved Proposition 98, guaranteeing at least 40% of state general revenues to public schools and community colleges; and raising the state gasoline tax by nine cents over a five-year period to pay for transportation programs.

All of this will be subject to voter approval as a proposed constitutional amendment on next June’s primary ballot. And it is widely believed that education’s support will be crucial to passing the ballot measure.

Although Honig, the California Teachers Assn. and other educational groups say they are neutral on the measure, their comments suggest that it is neutrality bordering on outright opposition.

“Officially, we are neutral,” said Alice Huffman, director of political affairs for the 212,000-member teachers’ group. “But we are probably more hostile neutral than neutral neutral.” She said she doubts that delegates to the annual CTA convention in October will approve the package.

Said Bob Wells, director of governmental relations for the Assn. of California School Administrators, “we wanted to be enthusiastic backers, but at the present time we don’t see how we can be.”

If the governor and legislative leaders “want us on board” in support of the ballot measure, Honig said, “they will have to make some overtures. They will have to ask, ‘What does it take for you not to be antagonistic to the measure? What does it take for you to be positive about it?’ ”

He mentioned support for several billion dollars’ worth of new school construction bonds, and “a favorable attitude” toward the 1990-91 education operating budget as the kinds of signs he is looking for.

Honig said several important changes were made in the legislation in the last few days of June, when the governor and legislative leaders met to hammer out a 1989-90 budget agreement.

At the insistence of Senate Minority Leader Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), a provision was deleted that would have built any future state surplus money into the schools’ basic budget for the following year. Without that money, “we can’t cut class size or do any of the other things we need to do for quality education because we can’t count on having the funds,” Honig said.

Another change that upset Honig was removal of an “added protection” that would have assured public schools of an extra 0.5% of total state and local education spending even in years when state revenues were down. He estimated that change could cost the schools $800 million to $900 million a year.

Honig said he and other leaders of the public school coalition made it clear to the governor and to the legislative leadership that these provisions, and one or two others, had to be restored in the measure if it was to win their support.

“They could have had us for a very small price,” the state schools’ chief said. “I really don’t understand why they didn’t do it.”

Honig said he, CTA President Ed Foglia and others in the coalition leadership “could have blocked the final agreement” in the Legislature but chose not to do so. But neither will they support the ballot measure unless the changes they want are made.

“Maddy and (Senate President Pro Tem David) Roberti publicly attacked us for being greedy, when we were the only ones who were trying to make this work,” Honig said. “That left a bad taste in our mouths.”

Honig also was irked because he was excluded from the final meetings between Deukmejian and legislative leaders.

Maddy replied: “There was no reason to meet with him. When the four leaders (Roberti, Maddy, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Assembly Minority Leader Ross Johnson (R-La Habra)) sit down with the governor, we don’t invite in the homeless, lobbyists for the doctors or Bill Honig.”

Foglia said that educators “don’t need it (the ballot measure), but the State of California feels they do need it. That puts us in a pretty good position to ask, ‘What are you going to do for education to get us to buy into this process?’ ”

The CTA president said the governor and the Legislature “have until next February to make this thing right and I hope they do . . . I hope this isn’t the final product.”

February, 1990, is the deadline for placing measures on the June, 1990, ballot.

Kevin Brett, spokesman for the governor, said, “We are very hopeful they will come on board in support of the measure,” which he said would “loosen the shackles on the state budget” and also provide $18.5 billion in new revenue for transportation improvements.

Brett noted that the UC Board of Regents voted to support the proposed constitutional amendment last week. He expressed hope that Honig, Foglia and others in the public school community would “choose to be seen in the light of being cooperative and helpful and not in the light of being obstructionist.”

Maddy said the measure can pass without the support of public schools.

“I would like to get their support,” he said, “but I think, with the people we have on board, we have enough strength because it’s the right thing to do.”

But others disagree.

“We have to have their neutrality, at least,” said Fred Main, General Counsel for the California Chamber of Commerce, referring to the teachers’ association. “If they oppose us, it’s going to be a major problem.” Polls show strong voter resistance so far to raising the gasoline tax, which has been linked in the measure with increasing the Gann spending limit and modifying Proposition 98.