Legislative Session Opens With Protests, Clash on Taxes : Government: Roberti vows to fight Wilson’s attempt to end tax credit for renters. Demonstrators assail proposed welfare cuts, new motorcycle helmet law.

The new legislative session started on a sour note Monday as Gov. Pete Wilson and the Democratic leader of the state Senate clashed over taxes, and hundreds of shouting motorcyclists and angry welfare activists converged on the Capitol.

Wilson asserted that the $400-million renters income tax credit he wants abolished to help balance the ailing budget actually is a “grant, a subsidy.” But if the Republican governor insists on eliminating the credit, he has “got a fight on his hands,” warned Senate Leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), describing the governor’s proposal as a tax increase on low- and middle-income renters.

Meanwhile, about 500 denim and leather-clad bikers, many shouting obscenities, surged through the Capitol building demanding repeal of the state’s new helmet safety law. Outside, about 150 welfare activists rallied in the rain, deploring Wilson’s proposed cuts to needy children.

“Impeach Wilson” declared signs of the cyclists, who now must wear helmets as they ride. “On the street with Pete,” and “Chop from the top,” chanted the peaceful welfare demonstrators, many of them mothers with small children in tow.

Police reported no incidents, but the two start-of-session rallies and the sniping between Wilson and Roberti underscored forecasts that this legislative session will be full of conflict for the political leadership of California.

Wilson has advocated deep cuts in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children welfare program and elimination of the renters tax credit as ways to help balance the recession-beleaguered $55-billion budget, which faces a projected deficit of more than $6 billion next year.

Roberti has all but ruled out of bounds for discussion the elimination of the renters credit, which was sharply reduced by Wilson and the Legislature last year in order to balance the current budget.

Wilson called Roberti’s argument “entirely bogus. . . . The tax credit is a grant, a subsidy to renters. It could just as easily have been sent as a check to renters, totally separate from the returns they file.”

Roberti told the welfare rally that the expense accounts of California business executives should not be even partially tax deductible and should be “taken away first before you take the renters credit away.”

Officials of the state Franchise Tax Board estimate there are about 4 million low- and middle-income Californians who file for the renters credit. Of these, about 1.1 million pay an income tax.

The credit is $60 for a single taxpayer earning less than $20,000 and $30 for those earning between $20,001 and $20,500. For married renters earning less than $40,000, the credit is $120 and $60 for those earning from $40,001 to $41,000. Those earning more are not eligible for the credit.

Spokesman Jim Reber said of those eligible, about 2.3 million have no income tax liability. Single Californians whose adjusted gross income is less than $7,459 and married couples whose adjusted gross is under $14,920 pay no income taxes, but as renters can file for a rebate check.

Of the pool of eligible renters, board figures showed, another 1.6 million must pay a tax. But for about 500,000 of these, the tax liability is wiped out because they apply the renters credit.

Assemblyman Dick Floyd (D-Carson), who carried the bill making the wearing of a motorcycle helmet mandatory, barged into the bikers’ rally and confronted the protesters who denounced him as a “Communist” and worse. As television cameras rolled, the reelection-minded Floyd cheerfully waved a big cigar and told the cyclists they had the right to demand the law’s repeal.

A Republican critic of Floyd, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson of Newport Beach, urged the bikers to vote Floyd out of office. “If you can’t defeat Dick Floyd at the polls, you deserve to wear those damn helmets,” Ferguson said.

Speaker after speaker at the welfare rally accused Wilson of making AFDC mothers and children “scapegoats” of the recession, which they said has hit them harder than anyone else. “Chop at the top, then we’ll fix the bottom,” said Edith Long-Scott, executive director of the Women’s Economic Agenda Project in Oakland.

The governor’s welfare cut program was announced as both legislation and as a November ballot initiative. He argues that the reductions are necessary because “tax receivers” in California are outstripping the ability of taxpayers to finance them.

Legislative campaign fund raising has gotten under way for 1992 with a $500-per-person reception set for Jan. 15 by Sen. Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles), who announced last summer that he would not seek reelection because of poor health.

Greene indicated that he will use his campaign funds to help finance other candidates for political office.