GOP Blocks Key Piece of L.A. County Aid Package : Capitol: Republicans use parliamentary maneuvers to tie up a local tobacco tax. But Democrats vow to persevere.

Los Angeles-area Democrats on Wednesday ran into solid Republican opposition while trying to steer a centerpiece of their aid package for Los Angeles County through the Assembly: a tobacco tax potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Probably the toughest to pass of all the funding plans under discussion during the final days of the legislative year, the proposed local tax is opposed by Gov. Pete Wilson and nearly all Republican legislators.

Democrats nevertheless were trying to round up support for the measure as it headed to a crucial floor vote, which Republicans tried to hold off with a series of parliamentary maneuvers. The bill calls for a new tax, with local approval, of up to 25 cents on a pack of cigarettes and, pending scheduled amendments, to be levied only in Los Angeles County.

Other parts of the aid package were scheduled to follow the tax proposal onto the floors of the Assembly and Senate today or Friday before the Legislature shuts down for the year.

Also under way were attempts by Democrats to link proposed aid components for Los Angeles and Orange counties. Los Angeles legislators are seeking a shift of $125 million in Metropolitan Transportation Authority funds this year, and more in future years, to help rescue the county’s financially ailing health services.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan was lobbying the governor Wednesday, urging that he not cave in to Democratic proposals and agree only to the amount the MTA approved earlier--a one-time shift to the county of $50 million.

Wilson has said repeatedly that he would hold the line at that amount.

Meanwhile, in a legislative committee meeting that adjourned early Wednesday, conferees from both houses agreed to join the Los Angeles transit fund proposal with a similar measure for Orange County so that the two plans either succeed or fail together as they wend their way through the Legislature and if passed, go to Wilson’s desk for his signature.

Wilson has threatened to veto bills that are thus intertwined unless substantial changes are made to the Los Angeles County proposals, including MTA funds and other concerns.

Without the changes, said Paul Kranhold, the governor’s press secretary, attempts to tie the fate of rescue bills for both counties to each other will result in a veto. Mainly, Kranhold said, Wilson cannot accept any suggestion of a tax increase.

The Democrats appeared to be responding to the governor’s objections, in part, by keeping the tax proposal separate from the two-county shift of transit funds. As presently structured, the two proposals would reach Wilson in different bills.

Despite a threatened gubernatorial veto, the Democrats pressed ahead with a tobacco tax bill Wednesday, saying they will face that obstacle when they come to it. Analysts estimate the county would draw new revenues from the tax of up to $451 million in the next five years, beginning with $120 million next year.

Other elements of the overall relief package were recently joined to the tobacco tax measure, including relief from some state-mandated programs and new state oversight of county operations.

The bill would allow the county to reduce general assistance grants to poor, mostly single recipients, as well as relieve the county of requirements to fully fund its share of road repair costs and still remain eligible for new gas tax revenues.

New “accountability” rules would require the county to take direction from the state controller in its accounting practices, allow state elected officials to review its proposed budget and submit the county books to regular state audits.

Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) said if Wilson insists on vetoing the bill, “I’m all for putting it in his face and letting him make his choice in the light of day. Throughout the L.A.-Orange County thing, we’ve never been operating with the governor’s support.”

Assemblywoman Diane Martinez (D-Monterey Park) said she was hopeful Wilson would see a “two-for” benefit--”getting credit to standing up against the tobacco industry and helping L.A. County.”

During a contentious committee hearing on the tobacco tax bill, Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-North Hollywood) called the proposal “the epitome of local control,” a principle that Republicans usually champion. She said before the tax would be imposed, it would take at least four votes of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, followed by approval from voters.

The measure made it through the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee on a 6-5 vote, with maverick Republican and Assembly Speaker Doris Allen voting with the Democrats.

At the hearing, Assemblyman David Knowles (R-Carnelian Bay) sided with tobacco interests in opposing the tax, saying it would lead to Los Angeles County patrons making trips over the county line to buy cigarettes.

“There will be inter-county smuggling going on,” Knowles said.

A spokesman for the Tobacco Institute, a lobbying group, said that if the new tax is applied, taxes on tobacco products in Los Angeles County will have risen 520% since 1989.

But others said the county’s health needs justified the tax.

Jerry L. Harper, undersheriff in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said that cuts in mental health programs have imposed new burdens on law enforcement.

He said there are about 3,000 Los Angeles County jail inmates with mental problems, “the majority of whom should be receiving treatment in a mental facility.”

Msgr. John Moretta of the Resurrection Roman Catholic Church of East Los Angeles said the health crisis, if allowed to worsen, will reach overwhelming proportions.

“People don’t understand what a great health crisis it would be [if clinic and other services are cut]. It would be apocalyptic. It would be something that we’ve never experienced in Los Angeles County.”

Twenty-eight of 39 county health clinics and all six comprehensive health centers are scheduled to close Oct. 1.

The county is preparing to give about 5,000 layoff notices to health care workers Friday in preparation for the closings.

Times staff writers Jeffrey L. Rabin and Josh Meyer in Los Angeles contributed to this story.