State Lawmakers Look for Ways to Soften Budget Blows to Counties

Strapped lawmakers Saturday considered an array of budget-balancing schemes, including a statewide election to decide on a permanent sales-tax boost and a cut in the counties’ state-ordered programs.

One proposal in a two-year budget would cut a potential $1.3-billion shift from local governments to $700 million in one year, which drew cautious support from the counties.

“We’re getting close. Obviously, that’s better than $1.3 billion, or the (original) $2.6 billion,” said Dan Wall, representing the California State Assn. of Counties.

One member of the Legislature’s two-house conference committee, state Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-Modesto), indicated he was willing to soften his earlier position of unqualified opposition to shifting billions of dollars of local property tax revenues to schools.

McCorquodale suggested that he would now be willing to support a transfer if, for political reasons, he first had a “chance to vote on a budget that does not take a cut from local governments.”

The $2.6-billion shift is the thorniest piece of Gov. Pete Wilson’s recession-driven budget proposal. He says the money is needed by schools to satisfy voter-approved guarantees. The idea is opposed by counties, hundreds of special districts and many law enforcement agencies, who say it would cripple local services. Those officials have directed an intense lobbying campaign at the governor and lawmakers.

On Saturday, negotiators heard proposals to soften that shift, including a $200-million savings by cutting the so-called state mandates and a permanent half-cent sales-tax increase requiring voter approval next June.

If voters approved that tax, the shift could be eliminated in the 1994-95 budget year, said Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara).

Wilson has called a November election to allow counties to decide whether they wish to raise the sales tax at the local level. Vasconcellos said the governor’s proposal would “create a hodgepodge of sales taxes, county by county.”

He added that a permanent extension of a half-cent sales-tax increase may be needed “to get us out of hock and back into balance.”

The Democrat-controlled committee recessed Saturday afternoon and planned to resume deliberations Sunday night. Vasconcellos, the committee’s leader and the Assembly’s top budget writer, said he planned to work through the night and into Monday morning, if necessary, to craft a budget for an Assembly floor vote on Monday.

Vasconcellos also said he hopes to have a budget vote on the floor before the departure of Assemblyman Sam Farr (D-Carmel), who leaves Tuesday to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.