Legislature’s Countdown May Include Jail Proposal

The question of whether Orange County residents should be allowed to vote on a half-cent sales tax to pay for a new central jail is one of the thorny issues facing state lawmakers as they return today for the final frantic week of the 1989 legislative session.

The sales tax proposal--touted by Orange County officials as their best hope to pay for the proposed $700-million jail in Gypsum Canyon, east of Anaheim Hills--was killed by a hostile Assembly subcommittee last week.

But now, with the hours ticking off the legislative clock, state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) is scrambling to find one last way to resuscitate her measure before lawmakers adjourn for the year by the Friday midnight deadline.

Amendment Pondered

One approach being contemplated by Bergeson’s office is simply amending the main points of the Orange County jail bill to a similar Assembly measure that is scheduled to come up for debate on the Senate floor this morning. The Assembly bill would allow the half-cent sales tax elections for jails in Humboldt, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

A spokesman for Bergeson said the amendments will be ready for action when the Senate convenes today. If the measure were to pass the Legislature, it might receive a warm reception from Gov. George Deukmejian.

“The governor has not seen this particular legislation,” said Deukmejian spokesman Tom Beerman. “However, in the past, he has generally been receptive to allowing a vote of the people on sales tax measures aimed at a specific purpose.”

Bergeson’s last-minute maneuverings will be repeated dozens of times over by her Senate and Assembly colleagues this week as they labor long hours to finish delicate negotiations on matters great and small.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) displayed his characteristic bravado in predicting that the Legislature’s collective agenda will be completed.

“We’re right on schedule,” he said.

Bristling from criticism that they have been ineffective in dealing with some of the state’s most pressing social, political and environmental problems, Deukmejian and legislative leaders set out to make 1989 one of their most productive in years.

In June, they fashioned a long-range, $18.5-billion transportation improvement program, worked out a compromise to lift the voter-approved spending limit and approved legislation implementing a long-term public school financing plan.

Then, hoping to capitalize on that success, they filled their legislative plates with measures offering sweeping solutions to some of the state’s most difficult issues. But, with time running out in the session, it may be more than they can swallow.

One of the bills, the top priority of the Speaker, is a plan to provide health benefits to many of the 5 million Californians who now have no insurance by requiring businesses with five or more full-time employees to provide coverage to their workers.

The measure has been resisted by business groups, which have complained that private companies, particularly small ones, cannot afford to shoulder the burden of providing health insurance for those who do not have it. In response, Brown has been searching for funding--perhaps in the form of a tax credit or a share of tobacco tax revenues--that would soften the blow.

“I think I’m going to have to have a way in which to reduce the hostility of the employers to get the governor’s signature,” Brown said. “But I think we can achieve that.”

Another bill would revamp the state’s long-troubled, $8-billion system for compensating injured workers. The state system is the most expensive in the nation for employers, but provides benefits that are among the lowest.

The legislation has been the subject of months of negotiations among Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) and representatives of Republican lawmakers, the governor, insurers, employers and organized labor. Public employees, lawyers and doctors have opposed the bill.

Although Deukmejian last week charged that Margolin had amended the bill so much that it bears little resemblance to a version of the legislation he had supported months ago, Margolin maintains that the bill is very close to a form the governor could sign.

“I don’t anticipate sending a bill to the governor that doesn’t have his support,” Margolin said.

Still another series of bills would promote recycling and toughen up state regulation of the state’s waste management system. The new state program, which has been tentatively approved by the governor and legislative leaders, would replace the current and much maligned California Waste Management Board with a new full-time board and promote recycling of waste by requiring local governments to reduce the amount of solid waste going into landfills by 50%.

Lawmakers are also working on legislation to implement Proposition 99, the tobacco tax increase initiative approved last year by voters. The proposed legislation will pump hundreds of millions in new tobacco tax receipts into a variety of local health programs to help poor Californians who cannot afford medical care.

Hoping to clean up their own image, lawmakers are also working on legislation to establish tighter ethical controls on state and local officeholders and candidates for office by banning honorariums and placing limits on their acceptance of gifts and outside income.

High on Deukmejian’s list of priorities is a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow convicts to work for private businesses. The plan is patterned after a program run by the California Youth Authority that puts inmates to work assembling computers and packaging utensils for a fast-food franchise.

And to further complicate things, lawmakers still hope to restore $24 million cut by Deukmejian from family planning programs, deal with the future of Mono Lake and consider implementing a waiting period for all gun purchases.

In addition, state Assembly members will vote on an Orange County-inspired bill, sponsored by Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), that would double the fine--to $200 from $100--for truck drivers caught going 10 miles over the posted speed limit. The measure has prompted stiff opposition from the trucking interests and unions.

The busy week ahead has some top state officeholders sounding pessimistic warnings about how much of the legislation actually may win the necessary approval of both houses.

After weeks of happy talk about how well the governor and Legislature were getting along, the strain of fashioning so many compromises on so many bills in such a short period of time has begun to show.

Deukmejian was testy at a news conference last week, saying special interests appeared to be “winning” the battle to block individual bills that they opposed. Speaker Brown pointed the finger back at the governor. “He’s vetoed four or five of my bills, but I don’t hold a press conference and bellyache,” Brown said.

The next day, Assembly Republican Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno lost his temper during a conference committee hearing on the tobacco tax legislation, accusing a Democratic colleague of “stupidity” for pressing an issue that threatened the delicate compromise that was coming together.

Maddy, who has been meeting weekly with the governor and other legislative leaders, said “time may have caught up with us.”

But the Speaker was more optimistic. Brown noted that lawmakers and the governor are “about to close” an agreement on the solid waste issue and are nearing accord on several other matters.

The Democratic legislator said he expects to be able to complete talks on proposed constitutional amendments involving lawmaker ethics that will be submitted to the voters. He also expects lawmakers to agree on the bill to implement Proposition 99, the tobacco tax measure.

“That’s fairly good,” Brown said. “Then if we really do a slam-dunk on my health insurance measure, whether we do workers compensation or auto insurance or not, it still will have been a spectacular session.”