Legislators Vow to Fight Wilson Over Prison Funds : Finances: Governor hopes to raise $2 billion next year. Several lawmakers question spending proposal.

The Wilson Administration is pressing ahead with plans to raise $2 billion for prison construction next year, while some legislators, reacting to published reports about the high cost of prisons, vowed to fight the effort.

This summer, the Legislature killed Gov. Pete Wilson’s call for $2 billion in spending on prison construction. Although some officials and political leaders maintain that there is need for more prisons, several legislators questioned additional spending on prison construction.

“They have not convinced anyone (of the need for more prisons),” said Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), who is running for state Senate. “They don’t deserve it yet.”

Craig Brown, undersecretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, which oversees the Department of Corrections, said his agency is working on plans to raise as much as $2 billion by selling bonds to build more prisons next year. A spokesman for Wilson confirmed that the Administration intends to propose the spending plan in January.

Corrections analysts predict that the prison population, now at 126,000, will reach 232,000 by the turn of the century, requiring the construction of 25 more prisons, and ultimately doubling the department’s $3-billion annual budget.

Prison officials say the number of prisoners will increase dramatically, largely because of the tough new “three strikes” sentencing law. Proposition 184, an initiative identical to “three strikes” legislation signed by Wilson earlier this year, is on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Brown said the Department of Corrections probably will propose that part of the $2 billion be raised by the Legislature approving the sale--without voters’ approval--of lease revenue bonds. By the time interest is repaid on the bonds, the cost would double.

“That’s probably our expectation,” Brown said of the lease revenue bonds idea. “We haven’t finalized a proposal, but obviously we will come back with some prison financing proposal.”

Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), who led the effort to block the prison bond deal this year, said he will battle such a spending plan again. Lockyer called lease revenue bonds, which cost 20% more than voter-approved general obligation bonds, “irresponsible financing.”

“We are wasting millions of dollars by overbuilding fortress-like prisons, and neglecting the alternatives,” Lockyer said. “It’s very frustrating to see money that is so tight wasted in those ways.”

The Times reported in a four-part series this week that prisons, which consumed less than 3% of the state budget before the building boom, now take more than 7% of the budget.

California has been adding about two new prisons a year, with little oversight from state auditors or legislators. And the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., the main union representing prison workers, has grown into one of the most aggressive lobby forces in Sacramento.

California’s prison program is by far the nation’s most costly. Each new prison costs $200 million or more to build, and an average of $73 million to operate each year. Government experts say that if the Department of Corrections’ predictions are accurate, the prison budget will soon double, forcing the state to gut other state programs, such as higher education, or raise taxes.

“Our costs appear to be way out of line,” said Assemblyman Louis Caldera (D-Los Angeles), citing comparisons reported by The Times which show that California builds the most costly prisons in the country.

“We need to monitor it much more closely,” Caldera said. “Wall Street investors, lawyers, contractors and others are becoming very wealthy. We need to rethink our approach because this will literally bankrupt the state.”

Tom McClintock, Republican candidate for controller, pledged to undertake a complete audit of the Department of Corrections’ building and operations programs if he is elected Nov. 8. Citing The Times series, McClintock said California has created “an armed bureaucracy with all of the waste and mismanagement connected with bureaucracy.”

The controller’s office has not performed a wide-ranging audit of the Department of Corrections since the prison building boom began a decade ago, a fact McClintock attributes to the power of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn.

“No one has wanted to take on the prison guards,” McClintock said.

The union endorsed McClintock’s opponent, Democrat Kathleen Connell, donating $10,000 so far to her campaign. Connell said she intends to intensely audit all departments, with no particular emphasis on the Department of Corrections.

“I don’t think the problem is just in Corrections,” Connell said. “It’s an institutional problem. We saw government growing without any controls. I wasn’t in Sacramento, so I don’t know why that happened.”