Bergeson Plan Seeks Overhaul of Government

Irked with the Legislature’s inability to produce long-term solutions to California’s continuing budget woes, state Sen. Marian Bergeson of Orange County is pushing a measure that would force lawmakers to conduct a major overhaul during the next year.

Bergeson’s bill, which she expects to present for a vote when the Legislature meets Sunday evening, would require Sacramento lawmakers to conduct hearings and make changes by July 1, 1994, or see state government virtually shut down.

A 12-member, bipartisan committee would be formed under the Bergeson plan to come up with solutions and produce a final report by March 1, 1994. The Legislature would then have four months to debate and adopt any changes.

“The gun is loaded and we’ll have a big blowup if this turns out to be just another study,” Bergeson said. “We’re dead serious about doing something. This is the only way to get the Legislature to act.”

The Newport Beach Republican, who has teamed with Democratic Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg of Sacramento to push the legislation, envisions the proposal as an open-ended invitation to ideas that would change the way government does business.

But one feature Bergeson plans to push hard for is a stronger separation of power between state and local governments, with each enjoying distinct control over their own tax revenue.

Such changes would be welcomed by local officials, who are outraged by Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to shift $2.6 billion in local property taxes from cities and counties to education. City and county officials grumble that property taxes should go strictly to local needs such as police and parks.

“We have to rework the state and local relationship,” Bergeson said. “We can’t continue cannibalizing local government to meet the needs of state programs. The locals need to be given greater control over their revenue sources as well as responsibility for what they do with the money.”

Under her plan, the Legislature would be under a tough deadline to act. If nothing is done by the beginning of July, 1994, 70% of California’s sales tax revenue would be frozen and the state’s power to collect and distribute most taxes and fees would be suspended. In effect, state government would cease to operate.

Bergeson contends such a threat is the only way to get the Legislature to make fundamental changes and stop lurching from crisis to crisis. Despite repeated budget stalemates in recent years, state and local lawmakers have not confronted the underlying fiscal and structural problems that have plagued state and local governments.

“It’s a pretty dramatic action, but these are dramatic times,” Bergeson said. “If we don’t do something, government is going to shut down anyway. How else can we get the kind of leverage we need to get the Legislature to act?”

By throwing open the doors to broad-brush ideas, California might finally come up with long-term solutions, said Isenberg, who compares the proposal to holding a constitutional convention.

“It is the most inventive idea I’ve seen in my 11 years here,” Isenberg said. “It’s the only way to make us do what we know must be done and make us do it in a semi-rational way. . . . Normally the budget is a process of denial and avoidance. The big picture is totally lost.”

In the short term, the proposal might help prod the current budget negotiations. Although many lawmakers are irked by the governor’s hit on local government, they might reluctantly go along given the prospect that Bergeson’s bill could provide long-term solutions to such dilemmas.

The plan could also potentially pay big dividends for Orange County, which is Bergeson’s political base. The county has long been a so-called “donor county,” paying more in taxes than it receives back from the state. A reworking of the state’s taxing and budget system could provide more equity for Orange County, which currently gets only about 18 cents for every property tax dollar it produces. In contrast, Los Angeles County reaps 42 cents on the dollar.

“Orange County will never get a fair shot until we review the overall process,” Bergeson said.