Colleges Worried About Voter Backlash : Prop. 143: Officials of state’s higher-education systems fret that dwindling support for bonds could sink $450-million measure.

Arguments over Proposition 143--an initiative that would provide $450 million for public colleges and universities--generally mirror the debate over using bonds to alleviate crowding in California’s public schools.

Officials of California’s public colleges and universities fear that voters, tiring of repeated calls to support construction bond issues, may reject Proposition 143 on the Nov. 6 ballot.

“We’re worried about the trend line,” said William B. Baker, the University of California’s vice president for business and university relations, noting that voter support for higher-education bond issues has dropped from 60% in 1986 to 58% in 1988 and 55% in last June’s primary election.

“We’re also worried about a general voter backlash against taxes and the anti-government sentiment that seems to be sweeping the country,” Baker added.

Steve McCarthy, spokesman for the 20-campus California State University system, said: “Our concern is that if we have to keep going to bond financing--if another source isn’t found--one of these times we’re going to lose one.”

David Mertes, chancellor of the statewide community college system, said he felt “positive” about Proposition 143’s outcome because “the voting public has always supported our need for new facilities, but there is increasing concern that these bond measures can’t continue forever.”

Leaders of the three systems had hoped for a single vote on a $900-million bond issue last June, but Gov. George Deukmejian and legislative leaders decided instead on two measures, each for $450 million.

The money would be divided equally among the three higher-education segments. It would be spent to accommodate growth, to make technological improvements in both instruction and research and to improve earthquake safety.

Enrollment at UC, CSU and the community colleges is expected to increase an average of 57,000 students per year through the year 2005.

Opponents argue that students who benefit from a college education should pay for it.

“Something worth having is worth paying for,” the official ballot argument against Proposition 143 states. “Therefore, if this $450 million is truly needed at these schools, then the people who use the facilities should pay for them.”

The “no” argument was signed by Thomas Tryon, chairman of the Board of Supervisors in Calaveras County; Anthony G. Bajada, professor of music at Cal State L.A., and Ted Brown, chairman of the Los Angeles County central committee of the Libertarian Party of California.

If the bonds are approved, in the Los Angeles area they would provide $32 million for earthquake renovations at the Powell Library at UCLA, $27 million for a new engineering building at UC Irvine, $11.5 million for utility improvements at Cal State Northridge, $7.9 million to begin construction of a new classroom and laboratory building at Cal Poly Pomona and $4.5 million for a business/technology building at the two-year Mt. San Jacinto College, among many other projects.

The legislation approving the bond measure calls for the money to be spent on existing campuses, not on the new campuses that all three systems are planning.