Legislature OKs Quake Bonds : Government: Nearly $4 billion is approved for June 7 ballot, including $2 billion for recovery and highway seismic safety. Other measures would aid schools, colleges.

The Legislature overcame weeks of delay Monday and sent to Gov. Pete Wilson nearly $4 billion worth of bond issues, including $2 billion to help finance Northridge earthquake recovery costs as well as highway seismic safety improvements statewide.

A Wilson spokesman said the governor will sign the bond package today, authorizing the measures to go before California voters on June 7. Besides the quake-related bonds, the package contains $1 billion for public schools and $900 million for construction at campuses of the University of California, the California State University system and community colleges.

The legislation also appeared to head off a threatened North vs. South fight by giving Southern California more money to fix its quake-threatened highway bridges than what had been contained in an earlier proposal, which heavily favored toll bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area. Under the new agreement, Southern California stands to receive up to 60% of the retrofit bond funds, said Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar).

The Assembly voted overwhelming approval to the package and sent it to the Senate, where it briefly ran into unexpected objections from Republicans and Democrats.

In the Assembly, the $2-billion bond issue for quake recovery and seismic safety improvements of highways statewide was approved on a 54-11 vote, the exact two-thirds required. The Senate later sent it to Wilson on a 27-11 margin, again the precise one needed.

The $1 billion for public schools was approved 63 to 5 by the Assembly and 30 to 5 by the Senate. The $900 million for higher education construction was passed 58 to 7 by the Assembly and 33 to 2 by the Senate.

The total bonds approved Monday will bring to $6 billion the amount of borrowing facing voters June 7. The amount includes $2 billion in park bonds that qualified earlier by initiative. The voters dealt with a record $5.57 billion worth of bonds in November, 1992, and defeated most of them.

Also passed Monday was a newly crafted bill that would allow construction to start quickly on highway retrofit projects by eliminating certain permit and contracting restrictions.

In urging the Senate to speedily enact legislation enabling the state to pay its share of Northridge earthquake costs, Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) complained that California’s response has been “devastatingly slow.”

“At least show that we can act in a prompt, if not swift, fashion,” Roberti pleaded in urging passage of the Northridge recovery bonds.

While the state deliberated for two months after the quake, Congress and President Clinton rushed nearly $10 billion in federal disaster aid to California shortly after the Jan. 17 temblor.

Democrats in the Legislature favored temporarily raising the sales tax by a quarter of a cent on the dollar to finance recovery costs. Similar legislation was enacted in 1989 after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

But Wilson, who is running for reelection, ruled out higher taxes and insisted on a bond issue, whose higher costs in interest would be spread out over the next two decades. He argued that a tax increase would impede California’s recovery from the recession.

In Senate debate, Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), a contender for governor, argued that a quarter-cent sales tax increase “will not break the state’s economy. . . . This (earthquake bond issue) will make our indebtedness all the greater and is a tax on future generations.”

Freshman Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove), who voted against the bonds, said cutting the state budget across the board 10% was an alternative “nobody wants to talk about. . . . We could get $5 billion that way.”

Wilson and leaders of the two houses last week agreed on a compromise that included no election year tax increase. The chief bond issue would earmark $1.05 billion for Northridge recovery and another $1 billion to retrofit bridges statewide that are at seismic risk.

The North-South flap erupted late last week when an initial draft of the compromise worked out with the governor earmarked about $650 million of the retrofit bond issue for toll bridges in the Bay Area.

Assemblyman Katz said Monday that compromise amendments were worked out during the weekend that would allocate the bond issue retrofit funds to regions of California in proportion to the number of bridges that need shoring up.

He said that under the agreement, Southern California would fare better than the initial compromise because it has more at-risk bridges than the north. Katz said the Bay Area toll bridges, rather than getting the biggest share of funds, would get about 40% under the amended bill.

“From a Southern California perspective, this is a much better measure than the last,” Katz said.

While negotiating chiefly on financing the state’s response to the Northridge quake, the governor and legislative leaders also agreed on the $1-billion bond issue for new construction of school buildings and remodeling projects aimed at helping to house the state’s burgeoning schoolchildren population. The money also could be used for seismic safety improvements.