Family Planning Funds Snagged in Talks Over Inmate Labor

The future of $24 million in funds for family planning programs got caught up Thursday in negotiations between Democratic legislative leaders and Gov. George Deukmejian over the governor’s work plan for prison inmates.

Party leaders emerged from a private meeting with Deukmejian saying that family planning is one of about $190 million in budget issues that are under a cloud because of Democratic opposition to the governor’s inmate labor plan.

Any agreements must be reached by midnight tonight when the Legislature adjourns for the year.

Lawmakers took pains to avoid saying that Deukmejian was holding the budget funds hostage, but they readily acknowledged that the two issues are now connected.

Asked if the governor had linked the two, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti shrugged and said “not in so many words.” But laughing as he got on a Capitol elevator, Roberti told a reporter: “The governor is very interested in what he wants, and he knows we are interested in what we want. The signals (are clear). . . . The lights are all flashing.”

Bargaining Tool

Being negotiated are issues left over from last June’s deliberations on the state’s $49.3 billion budget.

Anticipating that Deukmejian would veto a number of their spending measures, Democrats who control the Legislature’s budget committees have refused to put money in the budget for some of the governor’s pet programs, such as the offices of tourism and competitive technology.

The Democratic budget writers withheld the funding hoping it would force Deukmejian to the bargaining table--a successful ploy. When Deukmejian announced a package of $488.6 million in vetoes last July, he set aside $157 million to bargain with and to use to restore funding for his pet programs.

Among the governor’s vetoes was $24 million stricken from the state Office of Family Planning, which had gotten caught up in the debate over abortion.

The state office, with an annual budget of $36 million, administers grants to local family planning agencies that dispense birth control and other health information to women to prevent unwanted pregnancies and detect sexually transmitted diseases. Critics complain that some of the agencies also provide abortion counseling and are linked to clinics that perform the operations.

The only connection family planning has with prison inmate labor is that it is one of the few unresolved issues left on the bargaining table as the Legislature heads for adjournment.

Deukmejian early in the year made the inmate labor program one of his top priorities. The governor envisions a program in which private firms would contract with the Department of Corrections for inmate labor. The pay earned by inmates would partially be used to defray the cost of their keep and also compensate their victims.

The problem for Democrats is that the proposal is strongly opposed by organized labor, an important source of political support for the Democratic Party. Labor fears that the proposal will take jobs away from private sector workers. At the same time, the concept is strongly supported by voters, according to polls.

Last week, Deukmejian talked about organizing an initiative campaign if the Legislature refuses to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot next year.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who attended the meeting Thursday in the governor’s office, said Deukmejian had indicated support for a $192-million budget package, including money for family planning, but wanted further consideration for his inmate labor proposal.

“They are all being discussed together,” Brown said.

Even if there is agreement to restore the $24 million, the governor and lawmakers must agree on how the money will be spent. Deukmejian has made it clear that even if he supports a restoration of the funds he wants the state program restructured so that there are guarantees the money cannot be used on abortions.