ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Brown Says County Won’t Find Friends in Capitol Session : Legislature: The Assembly speaker dismisses the meeting as irrelevant, drawing the ire of county lawmakers.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown declared Friday that the upcoming special legislative session to deal with Orange County’s financial debacle will produce only “a revelation that Orange County doesn’t have any friends.”

The Democratic leader’s dismissal of the session as irrelevant drew howls of protest from irritated Orange County lawmakers who plan to push the bulk of legislation designed to help the county out of its dire financial predicament.

“It’s nice to be funny and have a laughing joke at the great conservatives, but a bankruptcy in Orange County is not beneficial to the state as a whole,” said Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange). “The Democrats are going to have fun with us, but the seriousness of the matter will eventually emerge.”

*

Brown’s comments are only the latest rejection of Orange County’s legislative plans. Several other Democrats, most notably Senate leader Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), have blasted the proposals put forth by the county, suggesting they’re little more than rehashed conservative ideas that have been scuttled in years past.

Aside from dismissing the Orange County special session during comments Friday, Brown is expected this morning to tackle the issue once again in his weekly radio broadcast.

Brown said Friday he was troubled by Gov. Pete Wilson’s decision to call the special session two months after the debacle began. When the county declared bankruptcy Dec. 6, “the governor announced from on high that he wasn’t about to offer any assistance to Orange County,” Brown said.

Brown called for a special session in December, but that proposal was rejected by Republicans as a politically charged move designed to help the longtime Assembly leader in his efforts to retain the speakership.

Now it is Brown who is charging that politics is being played. He accused Orange County leaders of using the crisis to push a political agenda of social spending cuts and privatizing services.

“Little consideration has been given to raising revenues internally, even though Orange County is one of the wealthiest municipalities in the nation, and even though leaders of the Orange County Business Council have called for some form of temporary tax increase to pay off the county’s debts,” Brown said.

*

Brown said he doubts any meaningful measures to help the county will emerge from the special session.

“It’s unfortunate that he has that kind of an attitude,” said Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Irvine). “What’s at stake here is more than the recovery of one county. Orange County is a strong, vital part of the state economy. If Orange County doesn’t recover, it will effect the whole state.”

Brewer also said that Brown’s comments “fly in the face of his talk of cooperation and bipartisan effort in the new Assembly. At the first opportunity at bipartisan effort, he’s throwing down the gauntlet before we’ve begun the process.”

Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), who is leading Orange County’s efforts in Sacramento, said he still remains confident “there will be a lot coming out of the special session,” adding that “it’s a shame Willie Brown wants to prejudge what’s going to happen.”

*

He also speculated that the San Francisco Democrat, like other liberals, would prefer Orange County adopt higher taxes to solve its problems, something that county and state lawmakers representing the region have so far rejected.

“San Francisco has the highest sales tax of any county in the state, and he probably wants Orange County to match that,” Pringle said. “He doesn’t understand that the residents of Orange County don’t want to pay higher taxes.”

But one Orange County lawmaker suggested that local officials need to see Brown’s words as a warning shot across the bow and look for possible measures that can be pushed through a Legislature still controlled by the Democrats.

“It doesn’t bode well at all for what’s going to happen,” Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) said. “I think it’s a warning. It’s a warning that other parts of the state are saying, ‘Too bad Orange County. We don’t have any sympathy.’

“Until we get some kind of rapport and they have a reason to help us out of our problem,” she said, “we probably won’t get a lot of support, at least from the Democrats.”