Budget Focus Shifts Back to Wilson as Revolt Is Stymied

With an uprising by rank-and-file lawmakers beaten back, at least for the moment, the focus of state budget talks Monday returned to Gov. Pete Wilson, who marshaled forces late Sunday night to block passage of a $58-billion compromise crafted by a Republican and supported by Democratic leaders.

Wilson, seeking to unify the Republican front, met late Monday with the 13 Republicans in the Senate and planned to meet today with the 33 Republicans in the Assembly.

But saying he expected the state’s record-breaking budget stalemate to go on for at least another week, Wilson canceled plans to attend the Republican National Convention in Houston on Monday.

“I’m not going to the convention because it is clear we’re not going to have a budget,” Wilson told reporters in Los Angeles.

Although the governor succeeded Sunday in getting all but two Republicans to reject the compromise spending plan crafted by GOP Sen. Frank Hill of Whittier, many Republicans have said that they want the 42-day budget deadlock to come to an end and might be willing to reconsider the proposal if Wilson cannot deliver something better.

Hill’s plan, which cut more deeply into local government and the state bureaucracy than Wilson has accepted but was kinder to the public schools than the governor’s proposal, fell three votes short of the 27 needed for passage in the Senate and eight votes short of the 54 required in the Assembly.

Wilson spokesman Dan Schnur said the Legislature’s rejection of Hill’s compromise shows that the governor has been unfairly criticized for failing to come up with a deal.

“What Frank Hill is doing is commendable in its intent,” Schnur said. “It’s a very romantic image--to think of this one lone upstart solving problems that all the recognized authorities can’t resolve. It would be nice to be able to take a shortcut past all the problems that divide the two parties ideologically. But it’s not possible.”

Schnur said Wilson’s meeting with the members is designed to let them know that the governor appreciates their “impatience and their eagerness” for a budget deal.

“But he also wanted to remind them that there are issues of substance and ideology that still need to be resolved,” Schnur said.

Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy and Assembly Republican Leader Bill Jones, both of Fresno, joined Wilson in opposing the Hill plan, contending that its deep cuts in local government would force local tax increases unless cities and counties were freed of state restrictions on how they spend their money.

Wilson also has complained that the plan cuts too deeply into the executive branch. He has criticized provisions that would wipe out $100-million worth of unfilled job slots, eliminate nearly 200 public information officers and wipe out funding for his Office of Planning and Research.

The Hill plan, which won the backing last week of the Legislature’s budget conference committee, would cut general fund spending to $40.7 billion from the $43.5 billion the state spent in the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Department of Finance.

Hill was the only Republican member to vote for the plan in the Senate. Assemblywoman Bev Hansen of Santa Rosa was the only Republican lawmaker to support the move in the lower house. But members in both houses served notice that they were intrigued by the plan and might reconsider it.

“This proposal gives us many of the things we’ve fought years for,” said Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale). “We’re saying if there are objections, give us a list of those and let us go to work on them. Let us know that the end product will be something better.”

Nolan is among those Republicans miffed that Wilson Administration officials have resisted cuts in the bureaucracy even as they are pushing for deeper reductions in spending on the public schools, which are popular with Republican voters.

“If the objections are that this cuts too deeply into the state bureaucracy, then I’m not going to be a part of holding up the budget so we can add back bureaucrats and bureaucrats’ travel,” Nolan said.

Assemblyman Ross Johnson of La Habra, who like Nolan is a former Republican floor leader, said Democrats have moved a “considerable distance,” and it is time for Wilson and GOP leaders to sit down and negotiate with the majority party.

“This cannot go on,” Johnson said. “We have to resolve this.”

Among other things, Johnson complained about the Administration’s unwillingness to wipe out boards and commissions, including the state Arts Council, and to eliminate public relations officers from the state bureaucracy. Although these items would generate only millions in savings when the gap is measured in billions, Johnson said they are important for the “symbolic value” they hold.

“How in the world can we tell our constituents that we have cut, squeezed and trimmed government and the only thing left to do is cut local schools when the governor resists cutting public information officerR. flaks,” Johnson said.

Despite the rejection of his plan, Hill said Monday that he is not giving up on crafting a compromise that can win the support of two-thirds of the members in the Legislature. He said he will join several members to map out an agreement on the so-called “trailer bills” that are needed to make a budget work.

Hill said Sunday’s debate will give the governor and the top four legislative leaders “a new sense of urgency.”

Yet there was no sign that the Republican members of the so-called “Big Five” were prepared to accept a deal anytime soon. In addition to Wilson, Maddy and Jones, the leadership quintet consists of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys).

In addition to indications by Wilson of further delays, Jones predicted that an agreement was at least eight to 10 days away.

Democratic Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg of Sacramento, who has been a key player in the rank-and-file budget negotiations, said conservative Republicans would begin to desert Wilson within a day or two if the leadership does not produce an agreement.

Times staff writer Greg Krikorian in Los Angeles contributed to this story.