O.C. Delegation Put to Test Over Tax Hike Votes

While most Orange County lawmakers have held the line on taxes, two moderates--Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and Assemblyman Robert C. Frazee (R-Carlsbad)--have broken ranks and voted for major tax increases during the state’s current fiscal crisis.

Of the 11 members in the delegation, Bergeson so far has voted for the greatest number of tax increases as the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson have tried to pull the state out of a monumental $14.3-billion budget abyss.

And Frazee, whose North San Diego County Assembly district includes San Clemente, ended up playing a key role in the tax fight when he broke a dramatic hours-long deadlock on June 28 to move the controversial sales tax proposal--the biggest in California history--out of the Assembly and on to Wilson, who signed it into law two days later.

The state’s budget crisis is far from over. A stalemate in the Assembly late Wednesday forced Wilson to send his $56.4-billion spending plan back to the Legislature in a procedural maneuver that gives lawmakers another 12 days to figure out how to raise or cut about $2 billion.

That politically thorny question now guarantees the budget crisis--and opportunities to vote for tax increases--will drag into next week. Orange County legislators will likely feel increasing pressure to go along with Wilson and approve yet another tax increase.

But so far, voting records show, most in the delegation have held firm against the hikes. Sticking to the general anti-tax theme they pledged in remarks to The Times on June 5, lawmakers in both the Senate and Assembly have rejected Wilson’s pleas and voted no on the following major increases:

* The 1 1/4-cent sales tax, which will push Orange County’s total levy to 7 3/4 cents. Statewide, the tax is expected to raise about $4.2 billion, about half of which will be directed to the counties for social programs handed over by the state.

* A $770-million increase in vehicle license fees, also designed to help financially strapped counties. The new fees will raise the average car registration cost by $20, to a total of about $60.

* A $200-million tax on alcohol. The increase will be 16 cents on a gallon of beer, between 18 and 19 cents on a gallon of wine; and between $1.30 and $2.60 on distilled spirits.

* Erasing the sales tax exemption for newspapers, candy and snack food.

* Increasing the income tax for the wealthy--those making $100,000 or more--from 9.3% to as much as 11%.

Abstaining or voting against all of those proposals in some form were Sens. John R. Lewis (R-Orange), Frank Hill (R-Whittier), Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim), and Assembly members Doris Allen (R-Cypress), Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), Ross Johnson (R-La Habra), Tom Mays (R-Huntington Beach) and Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove).

Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Fountain Valley) voted no except once, when he went along with the alcohol tax increase.

“If you want to look for a bastion of stalwarts, if you want to look at some lobbyists who are representing the taxpayers, all you have to do is look at the Orange County delegation,” Hill said.

But two members--Frazee and Bergeson--had decidedly different records.

Although they both voted repeatedly against income tax increases for the rich, they softened their anti-tax intentions and supported other increases because of what they called the state’s grim fiscal “realities.”

Bergeson voted for four of the major increases--the sales tax, ending the candy and snack food exemptions, adding taxes to alcohol and increasing fees to register cars. Frazee voted for three, missing the vote only for the alcohol tax.

And, given the potential for a backlash from their conservative constituents in Orange County and elsewhere, neither of them were particularly happy about what they had to do.

“You writing something to go into my opponent’s brochure?” Bergeson said recently when a reporter inquired about her votes.

“In the short term, you have to hold your nose and do what you can or the whole ship goes down,” she said. “. . . Can we open up the prisons and let all the prisoners out? Are we going to close down our universities, so there is no access for students? Those are the decisions we’re making.”

Meanwhile, the normally mild-mannered Frazee also showed the strain after the dramatic sales tax showdown June 28, when he switched his vote from no to yes after five phone calls from Wilson. Immediately after the session adjourned, he got into a shouting match with a reporter during an interview in a Capitol elevator.

Days later and much calmer, the veteran assemblyman admitted he’s worried about the reaction from voters, who elected him in 1978 during the anti-tax revolution of Proposition 13.

If they rebel against him, he said he may retire before the 1992 elections, when he is 64.

“The sales tax was . . . the most difficult vote I’ve ever cast in my 13 years here,” Frazee said. “Philosophically, I’m opposed to it, but it came down to the point where I think the whole budget thing would deteriorate from here and we would wind up with bigger costs.”

Either way, Orange County lawmakers felt the heat when it came to voting on the taxes. Even those who tried to please constituents by voting no had to endure pressure from Wilson--as well as press accounts labeling them “cavemen,” “orangutans” and “Neanderthals,” Johnson said.

“It’s pretty tough to vote against a governor of your own political party,” the Assembly Republican leader said.

However, Johnson said he is most bitter about the fact that Umberg, who has looked every bit the caveman with his anti-tax votes during budget deliberations so far, has not come under similar fire for going against the wishes of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco). A former federal prosecutor, Umberg beat Johnson-backed incumbent Curt Pringle in 1990 to take over the working-class Orange County district that includes all or portions of Westminster, Santa Ana, Anaheim and Stanton.

Now in Sacramento, Umberg has often been the only Democrat to vote against the tax increases, a move that pundits and articles have noted was due to his conservative constituents.

Orange County Republicans voting the same way, however, have been portrayed as obstructionists who are disloyal to the governor, Johnson said.

“To be perfectly candid,” said Johnson, “the press is using a double standard. . . . I represent a conservative Orange County district. Nolan Frizzelle does. Gil Ferguson. Doris Allen does. Why aren’t we given the same benefit?

“He (Umberg) has been given a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass,” Johnson complained.

Johnson said he even arranged a political ploy to try to “smoke out” Umberg. During the sales tax showdown last June 28, Johnson held his Republican members in check and suggested that they tell the governor to lobby Umberg for the crucial vote needed to give the measure a two-thirds vote in the lower house. Umberg had voted no.

But it was Frazee who finally relented and changed his vote to pass the sales tax.

“I certainly felt pressure,” Umberg said later. “But I didn’t think I was close to changing my vote.”