Doubling of Bond Issue Proposed to Cover Quake Costs : Recovery: Compromise package totals $2 billion for relief and retrofitting, but $650 million would go for Bay Area bridge repair. Legislature is expected to vote Monday.

Gov. Pete Wilson and legislative leaders agreed Thursday on an expanded $2-billion bond issue to pay for Northridge earthquake recovery and for seismic safety improvements on highway bridges, with the work weighted heavily toward Northern California.

The agreement, scheduled for a vote by both houses of the Legislature on Monday, also includes a separate $1-billion public school construction bond issue, which will nearly triple the amount of bonds initially proposed by Wilson.

In the first indication of a regional split over earthquake recovery funding, nearly two-thirds of the highway money is earmarked for work on toll bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area. Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said Southern California would be shortchanged by the deal.

The Republican governor and leaders of both houses reached the settlement as pressure mounted to fashion an earthquake recovery bond program that could be submitted to voters on the June 7 ballot.

But Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who favors a temporary sales tax increase to finance earthquake recovery, warned that the Assembly may not approve the compromise.

“I would hope it passes. I don’t know,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult.”

Katz, whose district was hit hard by the Northridge earthquake, protested that about $650 million of a $1-billion bond issue for shoring up threatened highway bridges statewide would pay for work on Bay Area toll bridges. Brown and Senate leader Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) were the two Democratic negotiators of the compromise.

“Under the governor’s proposal, there is a lot of money to take care of the Bay Area but not nearly enough for what needs to be done in Southern California,” Katz said in an interview.

Swept off the bargaining table during the negotiations was Brown’s quarter-cent sales tax increase that would be in effect for two years. Democrats had proposed that the tax be activated automatically as a backup if the bond issue is defeated June 7.

If voters reject the $2-billion bond issue, Wilson and the Legislature will have to start from scratch in paying for earthquake relief, and will be pressed to make additional heavy cuts in the state budget or raise taxes.

For Wilson, the agreement represented a victory in his steadfast opposition to a tax increase as he runs for a second term.

Wilson originally had proposed a $1.05-billion bond issue to finance the repair of dwellings of low-income victims of the Northridge quake and to provide the state’s share of funds to accompany $9.5 billion in relief already approved by the federal government.

His plan received a hostile response from many Democrats, who favored a temporary tax increase, and only lukewarm support from Wilson’s fellow Republicans, some of whom have argued that the money should come from budget cuts. Democrats argued that paying off the bonds would be more costly to taxpayers than a temporary sales tax increase.

If voters approve the bonds, the debt will be paid off with general tax revenues over 20 or 30 years.

In an attempt to make it more attractive to legislators and voters who live outside the quake-damaged Los Angeles area, Wilson and key legislators decided to double the bond proposal to $2 billion by adding the statewide seismic safety retrofit feature.

The added $1 billion would be spent on strengthening hundreds of highway bridges throughout California considered “at risk” during an earthquake. But most of the money would pay for seismic strengthening of toll bridges in the Bay Area.

The failure of the state Department of Transportation to more aggressively strengthen potentially hazardous bridges throughout California has threatened to become an issue in Wilson’s reelection campaign. On Thursday, his administrators embarked on an accelerated program to retrofit the 1,000 highest-priority structures in the next year and a half.

Critics have warned that if the retrofitting is paid out of existing highway funds, the work would occur at the expense of previously authorized transportation projects.

Katz suggested that the compromise reflected a regional point of view by Lockyer, who succeeded Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) as leader of the Senate.

“From a regional standpoint, it shows how Roberti’s resignation can hurt Southern California because we don’t have someone in there who is as strong an advocate for Southern California as Roberti was,” Katz said.

Lockyer could not be reached for comment, but earlier he praised the agreement. “This is not just a retrospective cleanup, but a prospective safety improvement of our highways and bridges,” he said.

Senate GOP leader Ken Maddy of Fresno, who advanced the idea of including retrofitting, said his proposal made the whole package a “better sell” to lawmakers and voters.

The legislation requires two-thirds approval by each house and majority approval by voters statewide. Speaker Brown said at least seven Assembly Democrats announced that they would not vote for it. On the Republican side, Assembly Minority leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga said only about half of the 32 Republicans would support it.

Maddy said Wilson and the lawmakers were warned by the secretary of state’s office that any bond issue aimed at June 7 would have to be enacted very quickly in order for ballots and voters pamphlets to be printed in time. A deadline of Feb. 22 set by the secretary of state was ignored by Wilson and the lawmakers.

If Wilson and the legislative leaders prevail, voters will face $5 billion worth of bonds on the June 7 ballot. These include the $2-billion proposal for earthquake recovery and seismic retrofitting, $1 billion for public schools and a $2-billion bond issue initiative for parks and recreation that qualified earlier.

The proposed $1 billion for public schools was favored by Democrats and would earmark $400 million for new construction, up to $400 million for modernization, including campus security measures, and up to $200 million for earthquake safety retrofitting.

Sources said the school bonds were included in the agreement because more classrooms are a high priority for Democratic legislators because of burgeoning school populations in urban districts.

The school bond proposal would be on the ballot separately and was given the catchy title “Safe Schools Act of 1994.” But state Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael), author of the new bill fashioned by Wilson and the legislative leaders, said he doubted that any of the bond funds would be spent for seismic improvements. He noted that schools long have been built to earthquake safety standards.

Greene said most of $200 million for proposed seismic safety eventually would be spent on new construction.

For nearly 50 years, California has financed highway and transportation projects on a pay-as-you-go basis that depends on highway user levies, including the gasoline tax, truck weight fees and various motor vehicle fees. Previously, highway construction was financed by bonds.

In 1988, Gov. George Deukmejian sought to bail out the state’s under-financed transportation program with a $1-billion bond issue. It lost at the polls by a narrow 500 votes statewide.