THE COUNTY BUDGET CRISIS : Legislators in a Frenzy on Final Day : Sacramento: Bill to end homeowners insurance crisis is sent to Wilson as progress is made on aid to L.A., Orange counties. Several major issues are left unresolved.

Trying to attain a few policy achievements before the end of its chaotic session, state legislators rushed Friday to approve hundreds of bills, including one aimed at ending California homeowners’ insurance crisis that followed the Northridge earthquake.

Legislators approved and sent to Gov. Pete Wilson the insurance bill, and were moving through a package of bills to benefit financially ailing Los Angeles and Orange counties.

But the Legislature was struggling to reach accords on several major measures, among them a bill to authorize a statewide referendum in March on a $3-billion school and university construction bond and a $2-billion bond for prison construction.

With the session drawing to a close, most of Wilson’s ambitious legislative agenda, including an overhaul of education and environmental laws and the civil court system, had failed. Wilson’s aides say several of the bills will be revived in January when the Legislature returns.

Legislators did approve two bills backed by the governor extending the death penalty to murders committed during carjackings and drive-by shootings.

Lawmakers were planning to operate on “legislative time.” Once the clock hits midnight, the official close of the session, they simply stop it and continue working.

At 8:30 p.m., a grim Senate President Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) stood to announce to senators that the session might go on until dawn, noting that scores of bills remained undecided, attributable “mostly to the tangled politics of the Assembly.”

The rush to meet the midnight close of the 1995 legislative session came as the Assembly, under new Speaker Brian Setencich, remained in a state of partisan turmoil and, of course, in a frenzy.

“There’s no way, no way at all,” freshman Assemblyman Brett Granlund (R-Yucaipa) said of his first end-of-session-night, referring to the impossibility of keeping up with the flood of papers crossing his desk on the Assembly floor.

“We’re being lobbied; 50, 60 lobbyists in the hall; can’t get out the door, and you got amendments” to bills on the floor, an exasperated Granlund said. He moved to his desk, cast a vote and then grabbed a six-inch-thick stack of papers and jokingly asked a reporter, “You want to read that and get back to me?”

It may turn out that Friday will have been veteran Assembly Democratic Leader Willie Brown’s final official day on the Assembly floor. Elected in 1964, Brown served as Speaker for 14 1/2 years, longer than anyone in California history. The flamboyant Democrat will give up his Assembly seat if he is elected mayor of San Francisco later this year.

“I’m not psychologically treating it as the last day,” said Brown, who had received a standing ovation from Democrats and Republicans when Speaker Brian Setencich called him to the dais to wield the gavel a final time. “It is another day to come to work and it is just as interesting as it was three, four, five days ago, and I’m just as pushy and offensive as I usually am on the last day of the session.”

One of the day’s biggest accomplishments came when the Senate and Assembly approved a bill aimed at resolving the post-Northridge earthquake insurance crisis in which many insurance companies refused to renew homeowners policies or issue new ones because of the state requirement that they offer quake insurance.

The measure by Assemblyman David Knowles (R-Placerville) was endorsed by the insurance industry and Consumers Union.

“It is probably the only thing they’ve accomplished all year long in the Legislature,” Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush said. “It prevents massive non-renewals of insurance policies in the state, and we’re solving the homeowners’ [insurance] availability crisis.”

In a related measure, the Legislature approved a bill by Assemblywoman Juanita McDonald (D-Carson) authorizing Quackenbush to take steps to set up a state insurance authority that would offer earthquake coverage, although there would have to be further enabling legislation next year.

Knowles’ bill leaves intact the requirement that insurance companies offer quake coverage. But the deductible for earthquake insurance would rise from 10% to a maximum of 15% of the loss. The so-called minimum policy would cover homes but not pools, detached garages, sidewalks and patios.

“We’ve stared in the face the problem of consumers getting pennies on the dollar, perhaps, in the next major earthquake and we’ve taken a significant step forward,” Knowles said. “The last thing Mom and Pop need is an insolvent insurance company. This measure will go a long way to protecting Mom and Pop.”

The insurance industry was hit with $12 billion in claims from the 1994 Northridge quake. Insurers claimed that the law requiring them to offer quake coverage to homeowners overexposed them to financial liability.

“You will not get the same coverage and you will pay more for it,” said state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), who helped write the compromise. “We would all like to deliver more coverage to our constituents for less premium, but that is impossible.”

As scores of lobbyists tried to kill bills or make last-minute arguments to win votes and strike deals, legislators approved a bill by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-Burlingame) aimed at letting car buyers know when they buy seemingly new cars that manufacturers have had to buy back as lemons.

But many more remain undecided, including:

* A bill by Sen. Charles Calderon (D-Whittier) repealing several prisoner “rights,” including the right to visits, to marry, to make a will and to collect certain prison work-related benefits, and declares them to be privileges.

* A bill to decide whether to require public water systems to treat drinking water with fluoride to prevent tooth decay.

That bill was being opposed by some conservatives, including state Sen. Don Rogers (R-Tehachapi), who contended that some studies show fluoride is a “poison.” State Sen. Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia) charged that the bill would represent an enormous financial windfall for the bottled water industry because people would buy unfluoridated water.

“Why force [people] to go to a water company who is going to make millions of dollars?” Mountjoy asked.

* A measure requiring health plans to cover certain contraceptives.

* A proposal that women and their newborns be allowed remain in hospitals for a minimum of 48 hours after births.

Proponents of the measure say it is aimed at stopping so-called “drive-by births,” a reference to a growing trend by health maintenance organizations to permit mothers to remain in hospitals for only eight or 10 hours after birth. State Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) criticized the bill as another government attempt to “dictate” to mothers, doctors, hospitals and insurers.

* A tax bill by Lockyer and Assemblyman Thomas M. Hannigan (D-Benicia) that would grant tax breaks to bio-pharmaceutical companies, computer manufacturers, small businesses, airline repair facilities and other businesses. It also would result in some minor tax increases--and as a result, some Assembly Republicans were vowing to try to kill it.

* A bill that would ask voters in March whether to roll back protections for mountain lions.

* A measure permitting continued use of methyl bromide, an ozone-depleting pesticide widely used on California’s huge strawberry and nut crops, and on many exported foods. Use of the pesticide, suspected of causing birth defects in children of workers who apply it, is due to be phased out by state law next March.

The legislative work came after the Assembly and Senate resolved an internal squabble. The Assembly had demanded that the Senate return $1.3 million that Assembly members say Lockyer stole from the lower house’s budget during the state budget process earlier this summer.

As he announced the settlement on the Senate floor, Lockyer proclaimed that goodwill had been restored between the two houses--then whispered so that his fellow senators could hear, “I got the money.”

In the Assembly, legislators signed one another’s 1995 class pictures. Assemblywoman Doris Allen, who resigned as Speaker on Thursday, returned to her seat as one of 80 Assembly members.

But the Assembly remained as it had been for much of the year: contentious. They fought, for example, over the wording of a roadside plaque commemorating the “Mormon Battalion” march from Salt Lake City to California during the Mexican-American War.

Newly installed Speaker Setencich, of Fresno, pointed out that Friday may be Brown’s final day in the lower house after 31 years, and invited Brown to the dais to wield the gavel for one last time.

Democrats and Republicans stood and applauded. Once taking the gavel, Brown proceeded to start moving quickly through the final 120 bills that were pending by midday, but not before Republicans made a few quips.

“I’m having bad flashbacks here,” Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) said as he stood to present a bill seeking to limit lawsuits--an idea almost antithetical to Brown, most Democrats and to one of their most loyal sources of campaign money, trial lawyers.

Morrow proceeded with a speech supporting the limit on lawsuits, part of the governor’s ill-fated legislative agenda. With the Republican’s 41-vote majority in the Assembly, the measure was heading toward approval in the lower house. But it faced almost certain death in the Senate, where Democrats still are in control.

Times staff writers Dan Morain and Jenifer Warren contributed to this story.

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The Last-Minute Legislature

Moving to complete work on dozens of bills, the Assembly and Senate worked into the night. Here is a summary of some major bills that saw final action Friday and others that were still pending late in the evening.

Final Approval (Bills now go to the governor):

* Orange County: A bankruptcy recovery package of bills would, among other things, divert a total of $570 million currently earmarked for the county’s highway and transit fund to the county’s general operating budget over the next 15 years. Enactment of the package is also tied to approval of the Los Angeles County aid package.

* Earthquake Insurance: A controversial no-frills earthquake insurance policy would be created along with a framework for a future state quake insurance authority.

* Ride Sharing: The South Coast Air Quality Management District would be required to abolish its ride-sharing program.

* Child Support: Parents who did not pay child support would face possible loss of their driver’s licenses.

* Drive-by Shootings: Those convicted of first-degree murder committed during a drive-by shooting would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

* State Beaches: Eight beaches in Los Angeles County will be transferred from state to county ownership. This bill was signed by Gov. Pete Wilson on Friday night.

Still Pending:

* Los Angeles County: A financial assistance package for the cash-strapped county includes provisions to give the county Board of Supervisors authority to divert up to $150 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

* Mountain Lions: Voters statewide would be asked to vote in March on whether to allow limited hunting of mountain lions--now protected under the state Constitution.

* Fluoride: Water systems with at least 10,000 connections would be required to fluoridate their water. About 62% of Americans now live in communities with fluoridated water, but only 17% of Californians.