ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Bill to Allow State Takeover of O.C. Fails First Test : Legislation: Senate committee approves a dozen other financial measures that address the bankruptcy.

A measure that would allow the state to take control of bankrupt Orange County failed in a key fiscal committee Monday, but the bill’s author expressed confidence it will be approved later this week.

The 6-3 vote for the bill by Sen. Lucy Killea (I-San Diego) failed by a single vote to get the required majority of the 13-member Senate Appropriations Committee. But it was granted a second-chance vote when the panel reconvenes on Thursday.

Killea blamed the defeat on the absence of two committee members who have expressed support for the legislation. Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-Gardena) was at the dentist and Sen. Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier) was tied up in another Senate hearing.

“We’ll be fine on Thursday, as long as no one else has a dental appointment,” Killea quipped after the vote.

Killea’s bill would set up a three-member county assistance authority composed of Treasurer Matt Fong, Controller Kathleen Connell and Director of Finance Russell Gould. The assistance authority could appoint an administrator to run the affairs of the county for up to two years, limiting the Orange County Board of Supervisors to an advisory capacity.

Although the bill initially would have allowed the authority to lend the county upward of $200 million annually in state funds, Killea stripped the money from the bill in hopes of easing the road through the Senate.

But the revised version still failed to win over a trio of Republican lawmakers who voted against it because of concerns about the state stepping in to bail out Orange County after it lost $1.7 billion in investments and declared bankruptcy last year.

Killea and others have suggested a trustee would hold a hammer over the heads of Orange County voters, who face a June 27 vote on a half-cent sales tax increase and might approve it to avoid a state takeover. Sen. Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino), who voted against Killea’s bill, said he saw the situation exactly the opposite.

“Is the state always going to be the fallback for any county that gets in trouble?” he said after the vote. “This bill gives Orange County the easy way out.”

While Killea’s measure failed Monday, a dozen others addressing the Orange County bankruptcy got the committee’s approval. Among them:

* A measure authored by Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange) that would allow the county to pay off $175 million in bond debt and reap an addition $60 million by shifting the responsibility for collecting property taxes to a joint powers authority.

* Another Lewis bill designed to assuage the concerns of Wall Street by setting up an “intercept” program that would set aside sales taxes and motor vehicle fees to pay off recovery loans.

* A bill by Sen. Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton) that would require county treasurers to adopt annual investment policies and issue quarterly reports to their governing boards.

* Legislation that would shift about $3 million in additional annual revenue to the Orange County Transportation Authority, one of the biggest participants in the Orange County investment pool.

* Measures by Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) that would require counties to select financial consultants and bond counsels through open bidding and put stricter requirements on counties investing tax revenues and on Wall Street firms seeking business with government investors.