EARTHQUAKE / The Long Road Back : Wilson Criticized for Asking U.S. to Pay Quake Costs : Recovery: Some Democrats fear the governor’s strategy is making the state appear greedy. Backers praise him for tough negotiating stance.

Gov. Pete Wilson is coming under increasingly sharp criticism from Democrats for his dogged refusal to acknowledge any state financial responsibility for the earthquake recovery.

Wilson’s unrelenting pressure on Washington to pay for the rebuilding effort is making the state appear greedy and eroding goodwill in Congress, many Democrats say. Some suggest the governor is trying to fit the earthquake response into his already clear reelection theme of blaming the federal government for many of the state’s problems.

Wilson Administration officials and his Republican legislative allies, however, say the governor simply is taking a smart negotiating stance by refusing to concede anything until events force him to do so.

Wilson, scheduled to be in Washington this weekend for a National Governors Assn. meeting, plans to meet with the state’s entire congressional delegation Tuesday and urge a united front to press for the maximum federal contribution.

“When flood waters engulfed the Midwest, when hurricanes swamped the East Coast, Californians were willing to help,” Wilson said Thursday in a televised address to Angelenos. “Now, Californians need the nation’s help.”

President Clinton has proposed a $6.6-billion package to rebuild California highways, repair government buildings, provide housing for those left homeless, and offer loans to help small businesses rebuild. Top Clinton Administration officials have said they are open to expanding the aid package when a more precise price tag is placed on the damage from the Jan. 17 earthquake centered in Northridge.

Clinton also has waived a federal rule that normally requires state and local taxpayers to pay 25% of certain disaster-related costs, including overtime for police and firefighters, repair and replacement of schools and other public buildings, and reconstruction of local streets and highways. Clinton has said Californians should be required to pay only 10% of those costs.

But Wilson wants more.

He has asked Clinton to have the federal government assume 100% of the state and local costs and has warned Congress not to approve the big aid package and then conclude that no more needs to be done for the state. California, he says, could be left “holding the bag.”

In his television address Thursday, Wilson said the state will have a damage assessment by a week from Monday.

“Then we’ll know what it will cost to rebuild,” he said. “Then I’ll work with President Clinton, Congress and the Legislature to ensure that we get the resources we need to fully recover from the quake just as quickly as we can.”

Wilson has spent much of his time since the earthquake in Los Angeles, heading the state’s response. Immediately after the quake, he toured the devastation and pledged the state’s full cooperation in dealing with the emergency and the recovery.

Using his emergency powers, he mobilized the National Guard, sent state employees to disaster assistance centers, suspended laws to speed freeway repair, waived regulations to allow for the speedy reopening of health facilities, and exempted employers from labor laws that would force them to pay overtime to employees put on 10-hour, four-day work weeks.

But the governor has said he wants the federal government to reimburse the state for the full cost of his actions. And despite pressure from Democratic lawmakers, he has declined to speculate about whether a temporary sales tax or gasoline tax or a bond measure might be needed to pay for repairs not covered by the federal government. It would be unwise to consider those options, he says, until the full cost of the disaster and the size of the final federal aid package become known.

Many Democrats disagree.

“It would be nice if the governor showed some leadership,” said Assemblyman Richard Katz, a Democrat from Sylmar whose district took a big hit in the quake. “He’s passing the buck. To sit here and try to blame it all on someone else or say it’s someone else’s responsibility is irresponsible. It’s cheap politics.”

Katz noted that Wilson’s Republican predecessor, George Deukmejian, endorsed a temporary quarter-cent sales tax after the Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989. The special levy, which raised $761 million, was passed by bipartisan votes in the Legislature in a special session 18 days after the quake.

In the same vein, Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco on Thursday proposed a half-cent sales tax increase for 13 months beginning March 1, which would raise an estimated $1.5 billion.

Brown said he will join Wilson in Washington on Monday but will carry a different message:

“When we are in Washington, we will be in the position to show at least some evidence of interest in California for attempting to do something about quake damage from its own perspective and participating with the federal government,” the Speaker said.

Democratic state Sen. Bill Lockyer of Hayward, who is expected to become the Senate leader on Monday, said Wilson’s posture is in line with the governor’s decision to rely on an unprecedented, $2.3-billion federal contribution for the cost of immigration in order to balance his proposed state budget.

Wilson also has blamed federal defense cuts for the state’s economic woes and has criticized U.S. environmental officials for trying to restrict water use to protect fish and for seeking to force the state to overhaul its vehicle Smog Check program.

“This is consistent with his style and his campaign theme, which seems to be to run against Washington,” Lockyer said.

Wilson may find a cool reception when he presses the state’s congressional delegation to unite behind him. Democrats are characterizing Clinton’s response as generous, while some Republicans have suggested that the federal aid package should be delivered only after cuts are made elsewhere in the national budget.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) said he thinks it is a “flight of fancy” to believe that the federal government will pick up 100% of the state and local costs from the disaster.

He added: “It is critically important that my colleagues from other parts of the country do not read, hear or think that elected officials in California are simply trying to shift the entire burden to the federal government and are unwilling to step up to the plate and participate in the recovery.”

Republicans in Sacramento, however, defend Wilson’s tough negotiating stance.

Republican Assemblywoman Paula Boland, whose Northridge-based district was hammered in the quake, says the federal government has shorted California in other areas and should be pressed to provide the maximum aid in this instance. Boland said the state’s economy is in far worse shape than it was in 1989 and may not be able to withstand another tax increase.

“The governor is right on,” Boland said. “Anyone who knows anything about business knows you look and see what your income is going to be, you look at your outgo, and see what the difference is. People who just arbitrarily say we need to raise the sales tax are taking the easy way out.”

Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno said he doubts the federal government will give Wilson all that he is seeking. But he said it is smart to keep the pressure on Washington.

“Our experience is, if they can get off the hook they will, because they’ve got so many pressing needs,” Maddy said. “There’s no doubt that the squeaky wheel gets the most attention. We have to push and argue and show a united front.

“We’re not begging. We’re asking for our fair share.”

Times staff writer Jerry Gillam contributed to this story.