Still Time to Accomplish More

When Gov. George Deukmejian addressed the California Legislature last Jan. 9, he joked that if Ronald Reagan could bargain with Mikhail Gorbachev, perhaps even he and the Democratic legislative leaders could work together.

That seemed to be rosy New Year’s optimism at the time. But for a variety of reasons--some of which could not be foreseen on Jan. 9--the governor and Legislature have engaged in more fruitful discourse during 1989 than in any of the previous six years. From a public-policy standpoint, this may be the most productive session since 1978, when the passage of Proposition 13 sent a chilling paralysis throughout government in California. Perhaps finally the thaw has started. The Legislature and governor realized that California’s mounting problems threatened to overwhelm them if they did not exert leadership and begin investing in the future once again.

They still are talking to each other, which is fortunate since several major issues remain to be resolved by Friday’s end of the session. Most critical perhaps is the allocation of the estimated $900 million that will have been collected by the end of the fiscal year from the tobacco tax increase approved by voters in 1988. With California in the grips of a medical-services crisis, it is essential to channel the money to those health functions outlined in the ballot proposition, and especially to hospital care for children and the poor.

Thanks to the exhaustive efforts of Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles), the Legislature also has made extraordinary progress toward reform of the workers’ compensation system, which provides for people who are injured or impaired as a result of their jobs. The governor accused “special interests” of impeding agreement, but many special interests must share the blame. Whether this incredibly complex issue can be resolved during the week is problematic, but attempts to do so must not be abandoned.

It is in the Legislature’s own interest to complete work on a strong legislative ethics- and conflict-of-interest package that can be submitted to the voters next year. One reason the leadership worked so hard this year was to overcome the damage to the Legislature’s image by the continuing FBI political corruption investigation. A strong ethics law, coupled with a realistic legislative salary, will help insulate lawmakers from the sort of financial temptations that now lull too many of them into the special-interest trap.

With some luck, the 1989 Legislature also can complete action on important bills to further restrict firearms sales, to extend health insurance to more Californians, to establish a system of low-cost auto liability insurance for those who cannot pay existing rates and to create a strong new state waste-management program.

Plenty of other problems face California. This year’s list of achievements is short but symbolically important. If voters go along, California will have turned the corner on transportation finance and arbitrary, Proposition 13-inspired budget limits. And the governor and Legislature have triumphed over one of the strongest of all single-interest groups, the gun lobby. Not a bad year’s work--and still time to do more.