Bill Would Set Deadline for State Reforms : Legislature: Under state Sen. Marian Bergeson’s plan, government would virtually shut down unless reforms are in place before July 1, 1994.

Fed up with the Legislature’s inability to produce long-term solutions to California’s continuing budget woes, state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) is pushing a measure that would give lawmakers one year to overhaul state government or face bruising reprisals.

Bergeson’s bill, which she expects to bring to a vote when the Legislature meets this evening, would see state government virtually shut down unless reforms are in place before July 1, 1994.

“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.”

Under Bergeson’s plan, a 12-member, bipartisan committee would come up with solutions and produce a final report by March 1, 1994. The Legislature would have four months to debate and adopt any changes.

If nothing is done by her mid-1994 deadline, 70% of California’s sales tax revenues 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.

“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.”

The legislator, who has teamed up with Democratic Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg of Sacramento to push the legislation, only loosely defines the procedural changes that might emerge from such a study. She presents her bill as an open-ended invitation for others with ideas on state government reform to come forth and open their suggestions to debate.

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

Such guarantees would be welcomed by local officials, who are outraged by Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to shift $2.6 billion in property taxes from cities and counties to education. City and county officials protest that property taxes should go only for 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.”

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.”