Legislature Moves to Speed Budget Action : Finances: Groups are formed in effort to persuade rank and file lawmakers to act swiftly on dealing with huge deficit. Governor’s first deadline already has been missed.

Pressured by Gov. Pete Wilson to get moving on the state’s $7-billion-plus budget shortfall, legislative leaders agreed Wednesday to create four “working groups” in hopes of persuading rank and file lawmakers to act quickly on the governor’s proposals.

Wilson met with the Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate and Assembly in an hourlong session that focused on his impatience with the slow pace at which the Legislature is tackling the budget crisis.

“There are a lot of people in both houses in both parties who simply do not yet grasp the dimensions of the problem and the difficulty of closing the gap,” Wilson told reporters after the private meeting. “The members are inclined . . . to assume that we can proceed with business as usual. We can’t.”

Wilson, who last month asked the Legislature to accelerate its normal budget deliberation schedule, complained that lawmakers seem to be postponing the inevitable while ignoring the fact that the longer they wait, the worse the fiscal picture will get.

The sooner the Legislature acts on budget cuts and tax increases, the greater the dent lawmakers will make in the deficit that is expected for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

“In effect they are saying they don’t want to take castor oil now and are risking taking chemotherapy in two or three months,” Wilson said.

The Legislature already has missed Wilson’s first suggested deadline. He wanted a bill to establish fees for services to the developmentally disabled by Feb. 1. The Assembly is expected to send him the legislation this week.

On more controversial matters, Wilson wants the Legislature by April 1 to reduce welfare grants to poor women and children by 9%. By the same date, he wants lawmakers to extend the sales tax to newspapers, magazines, candy and snack foods.

Democrats have balked so far at the welfare cut, with Senate Democrats insisting that Wilson reconsider his opposition to increasing income taxes on the wealthy. Lawmakers of both parties have grumbled about the selected sales tax increases, which Wilson on Wednesday called one of the “less difficult revenue choices.”

The four working groups will include Democrats and Republicans from each house of the Legislature and will be coordinated by Thomas Hayes, Wilson’s director of finance. They will focus on tax increases, education, health and welfare and general government.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) said he hoped the working groups would “create a July environment in February,” referring to the frenzy of activity normally associated with the summertime budget deadline.

Brown and Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Los Angeles) said Wilson’s timetable might be jeopardized if it requires lawmakers to approve welfare cuts without tying them to significant tax increases.

“Where we can make some quick accommodations, we are,” Roberti said. “But we also recognize that taxes and cutbacks have to be part of a general agreement.”