A High, Hard One in the Budget Game

In the classic baseball movie “Bull Durham,” veteran catcher Crash Davis tells rookie pitcher Nuke LaLoosh to throw over the batter’s head at the mascot. Nuke does, and the stunned batter exclaims, “This guy’s crazy.”

“Yep. I wouldn’t dig in there if I was you,” replies Crash (Kevin Costner). “Next one might be at your head. I don’t know where it’s gonna go. Swear to God.”

The batter strikes out.

Last Monday night, the politicians’ equivalent of Nuke LaLoosh was rookie Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, an untested newcomer to legislative leadership. Like Nuke, Lockyer was keeping the other side off balance.

The game was budgeting, the most important one played by legislators and the governor. They were three days away from a new fiscal year, again without a budget. Once more, Sacramento was running a deficit. This time, it would need to borrow $7 billion. An international banking syndicate had agreed to co-sign for $4 billion if a “trigger” bill could be passed guaranteeing repayment.

But Democrats wanted taxes in any trigger; Republicans demanded just spending cuts.

Negotiations were crawling. The parties were playing chicken, assuming the other side would blink rather than permit a politically disastrous stalemate, as in 1992. Meanwhile, the controller was planning to issue embarrassing IOUs this week.

Lockyer privately told intimates, “Staying gridlocked all summer means a nuclear explosion for Pete Wilson. But the Legislature will be in the fallout.”

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The rookie leader decided to throw at some heads to announce his presence and shake up the Capitol. He took up a “trigger” bill he knew had little chance of passing, but would give him an opportunity to attack Wilson and threaten everybody with a summer-long deadlock. Your basic brush-back pitch.

“There was a feeling that this guy Lockyer is crazy; he might just march up to the edge of the precipice and leap, keeping us here all summer,” Lockyer later said, grinning. “This was to show ‘em they might be right.”

For five months, ever since he’d become Senate leader, the Capitol had wondered about Lockyer (D-Hayward). He’s brainy but volatile; a veteran legislator but a neophyte leader. The other Capitol players considered him a wild card. So he took advantage of the image and the mystique.

Lockyer’s antics immediately jogged Senate GOP leader Ken Maddy (D-Fresno), a pragmatist. They began talks within minutes.

The next morning, Maddy told Wilson it was time to vote on a budget proposal. The governor protested it didn’t contain enough money for prisons, but the senator replied that wasn’t worth fighting about all summer.

On Wednesday, the Senate narrowly passed a budget. Only four Republicans joined Maddy in voting for it, however, and that surprised him. At a stormy caucus the next morning in Maddy’s office, some Republicans complained about state debt and angrily scolded their leader for not involving them in negotiations.

“Somebody had to make a move,” Maddy responded. “If you want to sit here all summer and cause the governor’s (election) defeat, that’s your call. But a couple of you will be gone too. I’ll be back.”

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Effective politics often is ugly. Jealousies, egos, greed, turf can be prime motivators, as in any field.

Lockyer had been prodded, in part, by pique over Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) getting close to cutting his own deal with Wilson. Assembly GOP Leader Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga) was the proud mediator. The planned scenario was for Brown and Brulte to compose the final budget package.

Lockyer increasingly felt slighted. And by last weekend, he had become so annoyed he wasn’t taking calls from the governor.

Then Lockyer made his move, followed by Maddy, and the Assembly leaders got miffed--especially Brulte. They felt their negotiating had been undercut. The senators countered that their negotiating hadn’t produced bills.

Meanwhile, Wilson had the Legislature where he wanted it--moving toward agreement and in his direction. The senators’ moves spurred day and night negotiations Thursday between the governor and all four legislative leaders. Wilson wound up achieving most of his agenda, mainly no tax increase and an almost on-time budget.

A trigger bill passed both houses Friday. Pushed by Brown, the Assembly narrowly passed a budget Saturday.

For Californians, it means people who depend on money from state government--through business or benefits--won’t have to worry about getting paid this summer.

A little feigned craziness had jarred the Capitol into sanity.