His Drought Over, Wilson Rides a Wave

Gov. Pete Wilson’s drought is over--not just the climatic one that parched the entire state, but the political dry spell that withered the governor and still threatens to destroy his career.

The high water mark of the Wilson Administration to date was reached when the battered governor adroitly coaxed, rammed and finessed an unpopular $52-billion state budget through the Legislature--meeting the constitutional deadline and with much of his personal agenda intact.

After a long losing streak, Wilson finally had a big victory.

It won’t come close to healing him politically, but it staunched the bleeding.

Wilson still is the most unpopular California governor of the post-war era and trails his potential 1994 reelection challengers by landslide margins, according to polls. Furthermore, pollster Mervin Field insists, Wilson’s fate is “really out of his control. There’s nothing dramatic he can do.”

The governor’s comeback prospects, Field contends, simply hinge on how the voters size up his general election rival and, if the Democratic nominee is found wanting, whether Wilson then is considered the proverbial lesser of two evils. “Obviously, the odds don’t favor Wilson, but I wouldn’t count him out,” Field says.

The outlook is not bright for the governor. But for the moment, there are some hopeful signs for him because of his budget triumph.

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To begin with, Pete Wilson in the last few weeks acted like the governor that most legislators optimistically thought he would be after his 1990 election. There was no quick cave-in to tax increases or a sudden change of agenda after a deal had been reached, as there was in 1991. There was no stubborn 63-day summer stalemate as there was in 1992. And there was little of the partisan game-playing that characterized both those years, particularly on redistricting and workers’ compensation reform.

This time, the governor made smart moves, and at opportune moments.

When it appeared he was digging in against compromise, Wilson signaled that he would consider deficit spending to balance the budget. That sparked a glimmer of hope in the Capitol. And he soon proposed an 18-month debt repayment schedule. But when Democrats tried to push him to 24 months or beyond, he stood firm.

Likewise, in another period of pessimism, Wilson boldly called a statewide November election to allow local voters to impose their own sales tax for law enforcement. Compromising further, he later consented instead to a state sales tax to be invoked by a majority of all California voters. And he agreed to extend a temporary state sales tax for six months beyond its scheduled July 1 expiration date to bridge the gap between then and the election. But when Democrats tried to prod him into a longer extension of a year or two, he resolutely said no.

And because he already had compromised and now was seen as a credible negotiator, legislators believed the governor when he adamantly refused to back down from his insistence on taking $2.6 billion in property taxes from local governments and giving it to schools. In a mid-June interview, Wilson confidently predicted that legislators ultimately would go along with him “because realistically there is no alternative.” And he was right.

Besides, it fit Wilson’s agenda to end the state’s 15-year bailout of local government that followed the Proposition 13 property tax cuts. “The people who are going to spend the money should raise it,” he said. “They (local governments) are on an allowance from big daddy and they like it that way. The state is big daddy.”

But to ease their burden, Wilson agreed to relieve local governments of roughly $355 million in program requirements mandated by the state--something “they’ve been bellyaching about for years,” the former mayor noted.

At the same time, Wilson preserved state funding for his pet “preventive” programs, efforts such as “Healthy Start” for school children, perinatal care for drug-abusing pregnant women, affordable health insurance for low-income working women and family planning.

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Now, free from budget gridlock, Wilson can change the subject and talk to Californians about other things--fighting crime, improving the business climate, reforming education, controlling illegal immigration, and those preventive programs. He also can tell how he has substantially cut state spending.

Meanwhile, his political rivals are denied an opportunity to bemoan Sacramento’s lack of leadership in another summer stalemate.

The governor’s sudden shower of success could go dry if voters reject the sales tax in November. But for now, if you’re Pete Wilson, it is something to savor.