Snags Bog Down State Budget Talks

Gov. Pete Wilson’s announced goal of producing a state budget by today fell by the wayside as lawmakers continued negotiating without success on a package of tax increases and spending cuts that would absorb the state’s $14.3-billion deficit.

On Saturday, Wilson predicted that there would be a budget agreement by now. As the week went on, hitches developed, although both houses of the Legislature were told that weekend sessions might be held. But by Thursday, leaders said they were telling members of the two houses simply to remain close to the phone in case something developed.

After a morning meeting in Wilson’s office, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) said agreement would not come today “unless a miracle strikes,” and advised reporters not to hold their breath waiting for a budget agreement.

Assembly Republican Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra noted that state Sen. Ken Maddy of Fresno, his GOP counterpart in the Senate, had set odds of 100 to 1 on the possibility of a budget agreement. “I think the odds are longer today than they were yesterday,” Johnson said, adding, “There are still very major, major areas of disagreement.”

Wilson, able to participate in only an abbreviated session Thursday before flying to San Diego to attend a memorial service for Otto Bos, a close adviser who died Sunday, was said to be insistent that Democrats accept deep cuts in welfare programs.

The governor wants an 8.8% reduction in basic welfare grants, elimination of a scheduled 5.4% cost-of-living increase in monthly checks and permanent suspension of guarantees for all future increases. Democratic negotiators are willing to go along with a 4% reduction in the grants and a temporary, three-year suspension of cost-of-living increases.

“We thought they were getting close, but then Wilson came up with this hard-line approach on welfare,” said one well-placed Democratic source.

Johnson, on the other hand, wants even deeper welfare cuts than Wilson, calling for a 17% reduction in basic grants--along with a host of other, more general budget reductions.

“We need to see a great deal more movement on the part of Democratic leadership on permanent cuts and changes that will produce ongoing savings in state programs,” Johnson said after the meeting in Wilson’s office.

Maddy said that despite the problems, he believes a budget deal is still “doable,” though not by today, and he agreed that Thursday’s session was “a very distracting, unproductive time.”

Maddy said that the longer the negotiations drag on, the more difficult agreement will be to achieve. He said lobbying has been stepped up by public employee unions, business groups that would be hit by tax increases, advocates for the schools and others. “Everybody I know of in special interest groups has said: ‘No new taxes--and no cuts, particularly if they are cutting me,’ ” he said.