Feinstein Paints Cheery Picture of State Economy

“Yes.” The notion leaps off Dianne Feinstein’s tongue like an old friend.

Yes, the Democratic nominee for governor is committed to a water plan to bring north and south together at last.

Yes, she wants to bring California’s brightest leaders together and form a new “21st Century Committee” to advise her on how to keep the economy booming and competitive.

Yes, population and business growth can be managed because there are still wide-open places in California such as Chico that want to get bigger and bigger.

Yes, this all can be done and the environment protected, too, with the help of a strong “public-private partnership” and “by an active role by the governor herself.”

Feinstein delivered this cheery economic address Tuesday to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, and about the only “no” she had for her audience of business and civic leaders was, no, she did not favor direct subsidies to competition-weary high-tech businesses. But, yes, she would assist such firms by standing up for fair trade policies.

As usual, Feinstein’s graceful stage presence and sincere demeanor earned her a warm reception. In this case, it also gave a conservative-leaning audience a chance to hear from a front-runner and listen to her can-do, say-yes vision for the state.

The former two-term mayor of San Francisco said she believed that California will weather impending defense industry budget cuts without a shock to the economy, and she mentioned several reasons for this. Among them, she cited a Wells Fargo Bank study that shows that the state’s dependence on defense contracts is down from 7.5% of total personal income in 1983 to 4% now.

Also, NASA contracts are up, the state stands to benefit from aircraft back orders and the state’s overall economy is increasingly diversified, she said.

If elected, Feinstein said she will convene a California economic summit within 90 days of taking office. And she offered another new proposal--this one to establish the “Cal 21” committee of business, academic and governmental leaders to keep California from dropping its guard and growing stale in the face of turbulent international economic competition.

Sometimes she got so enthused that she stepped on her own lines. Maybe only a few caught it, but she did offer the audience two No. 1 priorities--education and growth management.

About her other promises, she was specific only on growth management, one of her favorite campaign planks. She is proposing a state commission, such as the Coastal Commission, to help plan for population growth into the new century.

One thing such a commission can do, she suggested, is identify those areas in California “that cry out for some growth opportunities that other areas of the state don’t want.” She pinpointed a Northern California college town she visited as just such an area--trying to attract business with land giveaways. Aides later identified the community as Chico.

She cleanly avoided one of the toughest yes-or-no questions facing anyone seeking high office--how to pay for all her new ideas at a time of budgetary constraint.

Voters will help her reach that answer in June, she said.

That is when Californians will vote on Proposition 111, the ballot measure to lift California’s ceiling on spending growth and incrementally raising the gasoline tax to build highways.

“It’s a bellwether vote because I think it’s going to demonstrate whether Californians really want to face the problems the future brings us--the problems of growth and managing that growth,” she said. “So until 111 passes, it does very little good to discuss any other revenue measures.”