Governor Calls Special Legislative Session : Budget: He hopes to push his plan to cut $1 billion in state spending. He also criticizes lawmakers for wanting to delay action until Pete Wilson is sworn in.

Hoping to force action on his midyear plan to cut $1 billion in state spending, lame-duck Gov. George Deukmejian on Wednesday called a special session of the Legislature for next week and chided lawmakers for wanting to await the next governor before resolving California’s budgetary problems.

“I believe the public expects and deserves action now,” Deukmejian said in a special message to the Legislature. Later, he told reporters, “I am a full-time governor, we have a full-time Legislature. . . . The people did not send us here simply to delay or duck current problems.”

In his message, Deukmejian argued for quick action on his budget plan, pointing to worsening economic conditions that fiscal analysts say could lead to a deficit in the current year’s $55.7-billion budget and produce a shortfall of at least $4.3 billion in next year’s spending plan.

Majority party Democrats have greeted Deukmejian’s plan unenthusiastically, saying that they would prefer to deal with California’s next governor, Pete Wilson, after he is sworn in Jan. 7.

Deukmejian’s decision to call a special session reflects, in part, the frustrations felt by many lame-duck administrators as their power seems to wane and their proposals are taken less seriously. In this case, Deukmejian also faces the prospect of leaving California with a huge deficit--a particularly vexing situation for a governor who often bragged about taking the state from “IOU to A-OK.”

Even if the Legislature refuses to act on his request for deep spending cuts, by calling the special session Deukmejian could shift some of the blame for the deficit to uncooperative Democratic lawmakers.

Legislators already were scheduled to return to Sacramento next Monday and Tuesday to elect new officers and organize the 1991-92 legislative session. The special session to be held at the same time will enable lawmakers to take up and pass bills immediately. During regular sessions, a 30-day waiting period is required before debate on legislation may begin.

Opposition centers mostly on two key parts of the governor’s plan: to suspend guarantees for public school financing approved by voters as Proposition 98 and slash $526 million from school budgets and a recommendation to cut renters credits by $200 million.

Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, said Wednesday, “We have a new governor. This guy (Deukmejian) chose not to run; he’s finished. Let’s let the new guy show his colors.”

One of the problems Deukmejian will face next week is that he has established little good will with the Legislature during his eight years as governor.

By contrast, Wilson made a personal visit to the office of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) Wednesday--the kind of courtesy call that Deukmejian never made. Wilson requested the talk and he went into the meeting unaccompanied by aides just as Deukmejian was announcing his call for a special session. In recent weeks, Wilson paid similar visits to Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno and Assembly GOP Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra.

After the meeting in the Speaker’s office, Brown spokesman Michael Reese said the lawmaker was delighted by the visit. “It was an appreciated gesture,” he said.

Reese said Brown would prefer to deal with Wilson on budget issues. But he noted that the Speaker on Wednesday canceled a European vacation so he can be in Sacramento if necessary. “He will be here Monday, as planned, and will look anew at the proposals,” Reese said.

President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) said through a spokesman, “We have taken the governor’s proposals under advisement.” Roberti has instructed Senate budget and fiscal committees to conduct hearings on the governor’s budget proposals, but earlier he indicated that the general feeling among Senate Democrats was to wait until January.

Deukmejian got support from Maddy. “This is a sincere effort on the part of Gov. Deukmejian to solve this budget crisis, and the Legislature should respond,” he said.

Wilson spokesman Bill Livingstone also was encouraging. “The budget looks worse and worse,” he said. “If the governor and Legislature can contribute to resolving the problem, it’s in the state’s interest.”

The governor’s call for a special session came as some Capitol budget analysts were bracing for more bad news.

Controller Gray Davis today is expected to release a final accounting of the 1989-90 fiscal year that will show Deukmejian Administration budget officials as having overestimated the year-end balance.

And the staff of Legislative Analyst Elizabeth G. Hill reportedly is preparing a new budget analysis for the Legislature that suggests that next year’s shortfall could be much worse than the $4.3-billion gap predicted last week in a report by the Commission on State Finance. That report was put together before it was known that tax receipts had suffered a sharp $200-million drop in October.

During his news conference, Deukmejian acknowledged that the problem could grow beyond the projected $4.3-billion shortfall.

Chief of Staff Michael R. Frost said after the governor’s news conference, “Prudence would say (tax collections are) headed down. We had three months that were bad, and then we had October, which was disastrous.”

Deukmejian said he could not force the Legislature to act. But, he said, “they’re going to recognize and want to recognize their responsibility in this area.” Noting that voters this month passed Proposition 140 to limit the terms of legislators, the governor said he thought “the Legislature is concerned about its image.”

But education officials who led the drive to pass Proposition 98 in 1988 urged lawmakers to wait until Wilson takes office.

Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said it is unfair to cut so deeply into schools now when the overall budget problem seems much bigger. “Why single out schools now for a partial solution when you really don’t have an idea of what the total problem is yet,” he said.

Ed Foglia, president of the California Teachers Assn., said, “No one is going to solve this budgetary shortfall in two or three days with a crisis mentality.”