Sacramento in the Role of Fantasyland

Here in California’s balmy capital, you wouldn’t know there had been a riot in Los Angeles.

In a year when L.A. has overdosed on reality, Sacramento has taken over the role of Fantasyland. L.A.’s problems figure so little in the debate it’s as though the Legislature is completely ignorant of the devastating impact the budget fight will have on Los Angeles County and its many cities, already struggling to overcome the impact of the long recession and the riot.

You’d never guess, for example, that cops and sheriff’s deputies in L.A. County will have fewer resources to fight an increasing amount of crime. Nor does there seem to be much consciousness of the impact of reductions in funds for the county hospitals, welfare and the rest of the tattered safety net.

The fight--between Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown--is being waged as if the state’s largest county were somewhere across the ocean.

I had covered Sacramento for 10 years in the ‘60s when the Legislature dealt with serious state problems in a halfway competent manner. So I hardly recognized the capital’s transformation into the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday when lawmakers and staff took a few hours off from the fight of the century to attend Speaker Brown’s annual Fourth of July picnic in Capitol Park.

It was like a summer evening on Main Street. A band played and there were bright colored booths for ice cream, paid for by various corporations. At one booth, soft drinks, wine and beer were given away. I don’t know who paid for the beer, but Anheuser-Busch got the credit since it was Bud.

Gov. Wilson, on the other hand, was in anything but a festive mood. At his news conference a few hours earlier, the atmosphere had been poisonous.

Wilson denounced the Assembly Democrats. Afterward, reporters outshouted each other, hurling questions at the governor. He answered coldly, tersely, as if he held his questioners in contempt. The feeling seemed mutual.

After a few questions, Wilson turned and walked out, followed by his aides, who wore the same grim expression. They looked like they were settling in for a long, bloody war.

The issue facing Wilson and the Legislature is not especially complicated.

The severe recession has reduced the state’s income from taxes. As a result, the state must reduce its budget by more than $10 billion. Last year, the deficit was made up by a combination of cuts and a $7-billion tax increase. But the tax increases cost Wilson the support of conservative Republicans and he wants to win them back. Late last week, Democrats surrendered and dropped their demand for new taxes and agreed to balance the budget with cuts.

Whatever the final settlement, Los Angeles County and the city of L.A. stand to lose.

For Brown and Wilson have agreed to make up part of the deficit by taking from counties and cities more than $1 billion in state aid. This will cost the city of Los Angeles $301 million and the county $486 million in 1993.

As a result, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, City Council Finance Committee Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky and other city officials are furious.

They are especially mad at Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) one of Willie Brown’s key lieutenants and a probable candidate for mayor next year.

Wednesday afternoon, Katz faxed a letter to Bradley, Yaroslavsky and Council President Pro Tem Marvin Braude, inviting them to a budget briefing in the Capitol at 9 a.m. Friday.

“It would be a waste of time to go to a Richard Katz media event,” said Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani. “What I need is for Richard Katz to have the courage to part company with Willie Brown,” said Yaroslavsky, who may also run for mayor. “If Willie Brown doesn’t give a damn about Los Angeles, Richard Katz should.”

Brown and Wilson have proposed that the city and county of Los Angeles make up the lost revenue by raising the sales tax. Bradley and Yaroslavsky, feeling that another sales tax increase would hurt the poor, proposed that the Legislature give the city and county power to raise cigarette, whiskey, wine and beer taxes.

Given the power of beer and liquor lobbyists in the Legislature, Yaroslavsky doubts that will happen. After watching the celebrants quaff free Bud at Willie’s picnic, I think he’s right.