Veto Steps Up Debate on Prison Spending : Finances: Sen. Boatwright, the Democrats’ point man on the issue, says governor’s action reflects his close ties to guards’ union. A Wilson aide strikes back.

As vetoes go, it was minor.

When he signed his $57.5-billion budget into law, Gov. Pete Wilson used his line-item veto power to delete language requiring the Department of Corrections to report to the Legislature whenever it is forced to pay $100,000 or more in lawsuits.

“I was just stunned,” said state Sen. Daniel E. Boatwright (D-Concord), who has spent the year trying to master the department’s budget. “Right now, we have no idea how much they’re spending. We just wanted to get our finger on this one part.”

The financial effect of the veto in the 512-page tome that is the 1995-96 budget will be negligible. The governor, explaining his decision, said telling the Legislature within a month of settling a lawsuit is too “cumbersome.”

But as Boatwright sees it, the veto is merely the latest illustration of how this most favored state agency gets its way--and of Wilson’s cozy relationship with the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., which represents prison guards and donates heavily to the governor’s campaigns.

“Pete Wilson and the Legislature spend money on prisons because rapists, murderers and other serious felons need to be locked up, not roaming the streets as Sen. Boatwright would have them,” Wilson spokesman Paul Kranhold said.

With its 30 prisons and 130,000 inmates, California has by far the largest prison system in the country. Prison spending rises as the number of inmates increases. But that does not explain all the increase. Under Wilson in the 1990s, prison spending has increased 48%, while the number of felons in prison has gone up 34%.

In budget negotiations with legislative leaders, Wilson did pare $120 million from the $3.6 billion he originally proposed to spend on prisons. But that still represents a 13% increase over the last fiscal year, making the agency the fastest growing in the state.

“Our budget is lean, very tight, given the workload growth,” said Craig Brown, who until his recent promotion to head the Youth Authority was Wilson’s undersecretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, which oversees the prisons.

Brown said part of the cut, $50 million, is due to fewer inmates arriving than projected, although by this time next year, California’s prison population is expected to exceed 140,000.

Under pressure from the Legislature, Wilson directed the department to find an additional $60 million in unspecified cuts. The department will also save money by delaying or deleting some building projects.

But the department did win approval to add more than 15,000 beds to existing prisons, at a cost of $150 million. The building project will include new dormitories and triple bunks to house the influx of new prisoners sentenced under the “three strikes” law.

As the department grows, the Legislature is taking a renewed interest in its spending, and Boatwright has become the Democrats’ point man in the effort.

At the start of the year, Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) named Boatwright chairman of the legislative committee overseeing prison construction and operations, and chairman of a separate budget subcommittee that oversees the prison budget.

A former Contra Costa County prosecutor who came to the Legislature in 1972, Boatwright, 65, is in his final term. Since he is running for no other office, he said, the powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., a strong lobbying force behind prison expansion, cannot hurt him.

After holding hearings throughout the year, Boatwright, known as one of the Legislature’s more combative and stubborn members, concluded that the prison budget could be reduced by $400 million with no threat to public safety.

Among his findings were prison guards, with overtime, making $100,000 a year, and plywood for prison construction that could have been bought more cheaply at Home Depot.

In his committee, Boatwright has bottled up bills to spend $2 billion for prison construction. He pledges that no prisons will be built so long as he is chairman of the prison committees, unless construction costs drop.

“Someone is making too much money off this,” said Boatwright of the state’s $5-billion prison construction program begun in the 1980s, a sum that will more than double because of long-term interest on bonds used to finance the most expensive prison construction program in history.

Although Wilson signed the budget into law Thursday, major money issues involving the state’s prisons remain to be decided. The prison guards’ union, for example, is in the middle of talks for a new labor contract.

The senator’s suggestions on what ought to be discussed:

* Change overtime policy so officers with the least seniority have first shot at overtime. As it is, the most senior officers get the most overtime. Such a change would save $36 million a year.

* Deny officers extra pay for passing physical fitness tests, a $4.7-million annual cost. Boatwright contends fitness should be a job requirement, not something for which officers receive bonuses.

* Cut $3.9 million paid in bonuses to entice guards to work at San Quentin, Soledad and three other prisons in less desirable parts of the state.

Perhaps because of Boatwright’s insistence, a Department of Corrections source said the items are on the bargaining table this year.

When the Legislature returns later this month from its summer recess, department officials will attempt to revive legislation permitting the construction of six new prisons, at a cost of $2 billion.

Earlier this year, Boatwright traveled to Georgia to see how that state builds prisons. Georgia spends $40,000 per cell. New prisons in California cost $120,000 per cell, for a total that approaches $300 million for each new facility.

“They’re going to have to cut the cost of prisons or there will not be prisons built in California,” Boatwright said. “If it means that federal courts take over the administration of the prisons, then so be it.”

Boatwright attributes the department’s sway to Wilson’s relationship with the prison guards union--which has given Wilson $1.5 million since 1989, making it among his biggest political benefactors.

On the evening of July 26, the night after Wilson announced that he had reached a budget accord with the leaders of the Assembly and Senate, the governor boarded a plane for Carmel. There, he spoke at a fund-raising dinner hosted by the union.

The event was built around the union’s annual Governor’s Cup, a $2,500-per-ticket fund-raiser at which donors play golf at Pebble Beach, with proceeds going to the governor’s campaign fund. The amount Wilson received on July 26 won’t be known for several months. But last year, the event netted him $21,000.

Wilson spokesman Kranhold called it “ludicrous” to suggest that Wilson supports prison spending because of campaign contributions. He said prison guards donate to Wilson because “they recognize and agree that we need a governor who is tough on crime.”