Assembly GOP Blocks School, Quake-Safety Bond Measures

Republicans in the state Assembly on Thursday blocked more than $1 billion in state bond measures for school construction and earthquake safety, forcing the Legislature to miss the secretary of state’s deadline for placing the proposals on the June 5 ballot.

As the bills stalled on the Assembly floor, lawmakers from both parties seemed to believe that they could patch up their differences next week and still make the ballot. The secretary of state’s deadlines have been waived before and are generally not taken seriously by the Legislature.

But this time, Tony Miller, chief deputy to Secretary of State March Fong Eu, said the deadline was firm and could not be changed if the sample ballot pamphlets are to be in voters’ hands in time for the election.

“This is not one of those Chicken Little things,” Miller said in an interview. “We just can’t do it” given the time necessary for printing ballot booklets.

But Assembly Republican Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra said he believes that the deadline will be waived if the bond measures, which have wide support in the Legislature, are passed early next week.

“There is a very clear bipartisan sense that the deadline has not been missed,” Johnson said. “People think she (Eu) is crying wolf.”

The Republicans rejected the proposals Thursday for reasons unrelated to the bond measures themselves. Their primary objection was to the possibility that $800 million in school construction funds, if approved by the voters, would be distributed under new rules requiring school districts to try to contract with construction firms owned by minorities and women.

“Contracting ought to be absolutely color-blind,” Johnson said. “The test ought to be who can do the job best at the lowest cost for the taxpayer. It ought to be absolutely racially, ethnically and gender neutral.”

The bond measure, which was approved 35 to 0 in the Senate, failed in the Assembly on a 37-7 vote. It needed 54 votes in the 80-member body for passage. Soon after, a $300-million bond measure to strengthen state and local government buildings against earthquakes failed on a vote of 46 to 5.

Johnson said many Republicans withheld their votes from the earthquake measure because they considered the two bond issues to be part of the same package.