Schools Chief Vows to Fight Tax Cut Plan

State schools chief Delaine Eastin warned Tuesday that she and the influential education lobby will campaign against the reelection of legislators who support Gov. Pete Wilson’s 15% income tax cut bill.

“We will consider them enemies of the children and education,” Eastin told a news conference at the formal launching of a campaign by teacher unions, administrators, the California Parent Teacher Assn., school boards and others to kill the tax cut proposal for the second year in a row.

Representatives of the coalition argue that revenue lost to the Republican governor’s tax cut would be better spent on purchasing textbooks, repairing deteriorating schools, upgrading safety and replacing librarians and others laid off by budget cuts.

They contend that schools suffered during the recession and now should be allowed to share fully in the recovery.

Eastin’s threat to campaign against incumbents who vote for the tax bill drew an angry response from Wilson’s office as the “ramblings of the largest special interest groups in the state.”

“Calling responsible leaders, who are trying to ensure a healthy California economy, enemies of children is irresponsible and fanatical,” said Wilson’s spokesman, Sean Walsh.

The sharp exchange between Eastin and Walsh appeared to shatter a yearlong public truce between the superintendent and the governor, in which they had sought to work out differences on various education issues.

Wilson maintains that the tax cut, implemented in increments over the next three years, is necessary to build on the state’s economic recovery and to power California’s competitiveness into the next century.

Over the next four years, the governor’s proposal would reduce personal and business income taxes about $10 billion. Eastin said it would cost public education $6 billion during the same period.

Walsh called opposition by Eastin “shortsighted.”

“If we do not remain economically competitive,” Walsh said, “revenue will shrink and, subsequently, schools will get less money.”

The governor’s tax cut bill was passed by the Assembly last year but killed in the Democratic-dominated state Senate. Prospects for its enactment this year are unclear, but Wilson hopes that election year pressures on incumbents will result in its approval.

Eastin, a former Democratic assemblywoman who was elected in 1994 to the nonpartisan post of superintendent of public instruction, said she fears that for some incumbents, winning reelection may be more important than defeating the governor’s tax cut.

“We want to make sure that anybody who votes for this tax cut knows that they will not be supported in any measurable way by the education groups,” Eastin said. She added that the threat applied without regard to party affiliation.

The California Teachers Assn. plays a powerful role in the education lobby and is a major source of campaign contributions, particularly to Democrats. Other members of the coalition include the California School Boards Assn., School Employees Assn., California School Administrators Assn., Federation of Teachers and the Services Employees International Union.

Eastin said she may campaign personally for the opponents of legislators who vote for the tax cut. She said other campaign tactics could include a renewal of the type of hard-hitting television advertising the teachers association used against Wilson in 1992 when he and the Legislature deadlocked on the state budget.