Budget Panel OKs Shifting Fees, Publicists’ Layoffs

Over the Wilson Administration’s objections, a two-house conference committee on the budget voted Tuesday to eliminate 176 public information officers from state government.

The committee also agreed to cut 18% from fee-supported regulatory programs and shift the money into the state’s general fund, which pays for most state programs from the proceeds of the income, sales and bank and corporation taxes.

The committee’s decisions, if ratified by the Legislature, will make only a dent in the state’s $10.7-billion budget gap. But they marked the first official action on billions of dollars of recommendations made by half a dozen legislative task forces ordered to find ways to cut the budget and streamline government.

In a meeting between Gov. Pete Wilson and legislative leaders, meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) proposed a plan to delay for three years full repayment of the state’s deficit to protect education funding and soften the blow to other state programs.

The plan would reduce grants to welfare families and the aged, blind and disabled by 4.5%, raise university fees and cut the higher education budget and suspend the renters tax credit for a year.

The proposal also would extend for at least one year a half-cent sales tax that is supposed to expire in 1993, limit the business deduction for meals to 50% of the restaurant tab and cap the home mortgage interest deduction at $50,000 per year.

Roberti said the proposal was “politely received” but there was no public reaction from Wilson, who has said the budget gap must be erased in one year without a tax increase.

To do that, Wilson and his aides have said that reductions of 15% or more may be necessary. The governor is considering options that include deep cuts in welfare grants, the elimination of many health services for the poor and a plunge in per-pupil spending for public education.

But his representative--Deputy Finance Director Steven Olsen--told the budget conference committee that it would be unwise to strip state government of the people assigned to deal with the press and public.

Olsen said he “strongly recommended” against the move because the information officers are involved in publicizing major state government initiatives that affect the lives of Californians.

But Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco), who proposed the cut, said the retention of “professional flacks” in the midst of deep program cuts could not be justified.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Speier said.

The committee voted 5 to 1 to make the cut, which will save about $9 million.

The panel voted 6 to 0 for the 18% cut in regulatory programs, ranging from the Department of Food and Agriculture to the Public Utilities Commission. Although those funds are set aside in law for narrow purposes, the Legislature can limit spending for the programs, producing reserves in each account. The reserves--$150 million in this case--then can be transferred to the general fund and used for any purpose.

That shift was proposed by Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), a liberal known more for defending spending than advocating cuts. Asked by a colleague where the proposal had come from, Vasconcellos reflected the spirit of the day when he replied: “We just kind of invented it.”

In a related matter, the California State Employees Assn., the largest bargaining unit of state workers, announced that it had ratified a three-year contract requiring its members to postpone receiving one day’s pay per month for the next 18 months.

The 34,000-member unit of office and allied workers voted overwhelmingly to ratify the contract, which will give them a 5% pay increase in January, 1994, and a 3% to 5% raise a year later, depending on the rate of inflation.