Senate Democrats Offer Package of Bills to Revitalize Economy

Senate Democrats on Thursday added their prescription to the long list of remedies proposed to revitalize the ailing California economy, ranging from bond issues to increasing unemployment insurance benefits.

Senate Leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) coupled announcement of the economic stimulus package with an appeal to Gov. Pete Wilson to call a special session of the Legislature to deal with economic issues.

A special session, which would run concurrently with the regular session, would enable legislation to become law more quickly.

As he heads toward a reelection campaign next year, Wilson has made revitalization of the economy a top priority. In the Assembly, Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) turned his attention to the issue by hosting an economic conference last month.

Republicans in both houses have offered economic recovery proposals. Roberti said the Senate Democratic program, which includes more than 60 pieces of legislation, would be merged with other proposals in the spirit of bipartisanship.

In addition to increasing maximum unemployment benefits, the package also includes tax incentives to stimulate job creation, bond issues for housing and parks, accelerating the delivery of government-issued permits, and reforming the workers’ compensation system.

Roberti said the proposals generally would not add to the tax burden of Californians, except that employers would pay higher premiums for unemployment benefit increases and taxpayers would pay the bond costs. He said the bond issues would be marketed to voters as job-creating mechanisms.