GOP Legislators Draft Assembly Agenda for 1996

Assembly Republicans wrapped up a two-day retreat Saturday by releasing a seven-point program they plan to advance when the Legislature reconvenes next month.

“From our policy agenda for 1996, Californians will recognize that Assembly Republicans are committed to public policy over politics,” said Assembly GOP Leader Curt Pringle of Garden Grove.

Pringle led last week’s successful recall of former Speaker Doris Allen (R-Cypress) and her replacement by voters of newcomer Scott Baugh. With Baugh’s arrival in the Capitol, Republicans hope they can use their narrow majority to pass legislation that has been blocked by Democrats for years.

During the two-day retreat in Palm Desert, the legislators shaped seven broad policy areas they hope to turn into an ambitious legislative plan to overhaul state government next year.

As outlined in a statement released Saturday night, the program under discussion includes providing work incentives to reduce the state’s welfare rolls; reducing crime, in part through stiffer penalties and by making “prison life unattractive,” and overhauling education through administrative reforms.

Republicans say they also plan to press legislation that would increase protections for children, reduce government regulation in the workplace, cut down voter fraud and lessen costly civil litigation.

On Saturday, GOP legislators were describing the program as merely their “agenda for 1996” and were backing away from their earlier description of it as the “contract with California.”

That label--paralleling House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s “contract with America”--had prompted some Democrats to label the plan as “Newt Light” and nothing but a repackaged version of old GOP ideas.