Brown Sees Trouble for Key Wilson Proposals : Budget: Speaker says the Legislature is unlikely to approve welfare cuts or repeal the renters’ tax credit.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown said Tuesday that two key parts of Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed $51.2-billion state budget--elimination of the renters’ tax credit and deep welfare grant cuts--are already in deep trouble in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Brown, in his first extended comments since Wilson unveiled his budget Friday, said the governor is wrong in trying to cut welfare benefits 19% a few months after an almost identical proposal, contained in Proposition 165, failed at the polls.

“He (Wilson) ought not to try things already rejected by the voters,” Brown said at a Capitol news conference.

Asked if he thought the governor’s proposal could get through the Legislature by March 1, as Wilson has requested, Brown replied, “No, I do not.”

Wilson’s proposal to repeal the renters’ credit, which gives some tenants a $60 break on their state taxes, also faces stiff opposition, Brown said. The proposal would save the state $840 million over the next two years.

“I see no indication there are the votes for it,” Brown said.

Brown, a San Francisco Democrat, also said he would seek to extend the half-cent sales tax increase that was enacted two years ago and that is scheduled to expire June 30. The tax, which Wilson has said should expire on schedule, generates about $1.5 billion a year.

Despite these differences with the governor, however, Brown sounded a conciliatory note in his meeting with reporters. Devoting more time to areas of agreement with Wilson than disagreement, Brown said he wants to work to have the budget on the governor’s desk and signed into law by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

Last year, a partisan deadlock delayed approval of the budget until Sept. 2--64 days into the new fiscal year--and forced the state to issue IOUs to pay its bills.

“The budget deliberations will be really tough this year, but hopefully not as long as last year,” Brown said.

Wilson has been similarly friendly in tone. But with the governor unwilling to raise taxes and the Speaker unwilling to cut programs, at least so far, it isn’t clear how far good intentions will carry them.

Wilson spokesman Dan Schnur said the Administration recognizes that there are going to be “honest policy differences” with the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

“We’re just going to have to work harder to resolve those policy differences more quickly,” he said.

Schnur said, however, that the governor has no desire to barter on the sales tax issue to win support for a package of business tax breaks he is proposing. Brown had said he thought he was being “set up” for such a trade.

“Extending what was enacted as a temporary tax increase is a job-killer,” Schnur said. “Trading one package that brings jobs into California for another package that chases them back out doesn’t do anybody any good.”

One subject that Brown and Wilson agree upon is the need for an infusion of federal funds to help cover the state’s cost of providing services to immigrants and their children.

Brown said he “would lobby like hell” to help try to obtain the $1.45 billion that Wilson said the state would seek from Congress and President-elect Bill Clinton.

On another subject, Brown said he is asking top Clinton Administration officials to attend his economic summit at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on Feb. 16-17 to discuss ways to improve California’s sagging economy.

He specifically mentioned Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), the President-elect’s nominee to be White House budget director.

Brown said he hoped Wilson would open the summit and actively participate in it.

“I will be there every single, solitary second,” the Speaker said.

He added he also would ask economist George P. Shultz, recently picked by Wilson to chair a new Council of Economic Advisers, to attend the summit. Shultz served in five federal administrations in a variety of capacities.

In addition, Brown said he wanted the governor to expand the current special legislative session to allow the Legislature to quickly act on any recommendations that come out of the summit.

As for the cost of the summit, Brown indicated that he is willing to pay for the hotel rental out of his own campaign funds.