Education Teaches a Lesson in Budget Battle : Finances: Proposition 98’s guarantees made schools the big winner. Other special interests are looking to the initiative process to ensure their piece of the funding pie.
With public schools emerging as the clear-cut winners in the recently concluded battle over the state budget, the biggest political lesson to be learned--one that may come back to haunt the Legislature over and over in the 1990s--is that initiatives work.
State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, teacher groups, school boards and others set the stage for their decisive victory two years ago by sponsoring Proposition 98. The measure earmarked at least 40% of discretionary state tax revenues for public schools and community colleges. Voters approved the measure in 1988 by a narrow margin.
This year, school money had been under attack by Gov. George Deukmejian, who wanted to override the constitutional guarantee for school funding. In the end, Honig and the schools won.
Now, others with a big stake in the state budget--hoping to protect themselves the way schools did--are plotting initiative strategies of their own.
Honig and other school advocates had lost big in 1982, when they got no funding increase despite double-digit inflation. They lost again in 1987, when Deukmejian supported a $1.1-billion taxpayer rebate at a time when school budgets were being pinched.
Proposition 98 was designed to short-circuit the governor and Legislature. It worked.
Overall, the final budget deal approved by the Legislature last weekend contains about $2.7 billion in spending reductions, hitting virtually all state agencies and falling especially hard on health and welfare programs. In the end, Deukmejian had to yield on a number of his budget demands, including the largest on his list: $800 million he had sought in cuts to school aid.
As a result, state contributions to kindergarten through high school and community college programs will increase $1.8 billion this year. That is a rise of about 10% in the $17.8-billion budget for public schools and community colleges. On top of this, schools will get a share of lottery revenues and some additional money from property taxes.
Already, health groups that want the same protections as schools are sounding a drumbeat for change.
“My board of directors told us last week to develp an initiative for next year,” said David W. Helmsin, a lobbyist for the California Assn. of Health Facilities, which represents nursing homes.
Two major health organizations, the California Medical Assn. and the California Assn. of Hospitals and Health Systems, were putting together potentially rival initiative measures even before the budget fight began. The victory for schools is expected to intensify their efforts.
Dennis O. Flatt, a lobbyist for the hospital association, said hospitals have not given up on working through the Legislature. But, he said, “I think the handwriting is on the wall.”
George Cate, a lobbyist for the California Medical Assn., said, “We absolutely are thinking of an initiative. . . . Health-care funding over the last decade has gone from 19% of the state general fund down to 15% and with this budget it will be even less than that. Each percentage point is about $500 million, so if health care were funded at the same level we got 10 years ago we’d have an additional $2 billion in this budget,” he said.
It remains to be seen whether health groups can be as successful as the education lobby that wrote and then successfully defended Proposition 98.
In addition to Honig, the lobby includes an association of state school board members, parent-teacher groups, faculty organizations, lobbyists from individual school districts and the enormously influential and politically savvy California Teachers Assn.
They pulled out all stops this month to protect Proposition 98. The coalition put together a budget of at least $80,000, which was used to pay for newspaper advertisements directed at two Republican legislators who refused to sign a pledge to support Proposition 98. They held news conferences and visited editorial boards. When the budget was finally approved Saturday, about 200 school board members, who happened to be here for a meeting, hung around the Capitol much of the day.
Republicans hoping to cut Proposition 98 funding counterattacked aggressively. They circulated flyers breaking down statistics over what they called “teacher greed vs. student need,” producing charts showing that California still ranks among the worst states in terms of class size, while teachers’ salaries are among the highest in the nation.
GOP lawmakers also circulated copies of invitations to fund-raisers that the CTA is sponsoring for Democratic lawmakers in August. They pointed out that the CTA had contributed more than $300,000 to oppose two Republican-backed reapportionment initiatives that were defeated in June, and had spread campaign contributions around to key lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who got $4,000, and Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), the Assembly budget committee chairman who received $2,500. The Democratic Party alone got $20,000 from the CTA.
Critics simply could not find the right combination to crack Proposition 98. Simple and direct, it mandates a fixed share of state taxes, requires annual increases based on inflation and student enrollments and, for good measure, requires that the Legislature restore any money it might cut. So, even if they had agreed to cut Proposition 98 this year, lawmakers would have had to restore the money next year.
Adding to the formula for success is the highly charged personality of Honig, who has been warring with Deukmejian for years. Deukmejian has referred to the schools chief as a “snake-oil salesman.”
In a political arena where civility is prided, particularly among those outside the inner circle of decision makers bounded by the governor’s office and the 120-seat Legislature, Honig has a reputation for speaking his mind. “If they take your funds away you have to do what you can to protect yourself,” Honig said.
Although Honig has more than his share of enemies in the Capitol, just about everyone has at least grudging respect for him. “Education is a winner,” said Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy, of Fresno. “Honig, I think, did a good job of defending Proposition 98 and arguing against cuts in education funding.”
Deukmejian is so angry about Proposition 98 that he uncharacteristically refused to comment when asked during a Capitol news conference why schools were untouchable. “Don’t ask me anything about that. I don’t want to make any comments,” he said.
Maddy, who fought to include Proposition 98 guarantees in the state programs being cut, figures there will be “a price to be paid” by Honig, suggesting that Deukmejian may have the last laugh. Maddy predicted that when Deukmejian announces his vetoes today he “is going to lob a tactical nuclear device” by vetoing money to run Honig’s Department of Education, which is not protected by Proposition 98.
Maddy also said lawmakers who supported schools this year may back off if another budget crunch develops next year, as some are predicting. “The argument will be, ‘We’ve done all we can to protect you. There are only so many times we can protect you.’ ”
