Remember the Counties

This is all being negotiated in secret, but it appears that Gov. Pete Wilson and legislative leaders are close to agreement on a $76-billion state budget for 1998-99. It would include a major tax cut next year and a significant boost in state aid to public schools. Since the budget is now 35 days overdue, it’s time for members of the so-called Big Five to wrap up their discussions, write a final budget bill and send it to the Legislature.

Attention has focused on how big a tax cut to carve out of the state’s previously unexpected $4.4-billion budget surplus. Draft legislation indicates Wilson might agree to a $1-billion cut this year, with additional reductions of $2.2 billion delayed until 2001 and beyond, contingent on continued strong economic growth.

This is welcome news and would be far more prudent than the governor’s original proposal of a $3.6-billion “car tax” cut, a simple slash that would lack the currently proposed buffer against any sudden economic downturn.

As for education, a major question is whether local school districts will get a say in how any of the money is spent. Though the Republican governor claims to favor local control, he has earmarked all the new money for specific programs he favors. Democrats are right in wanting to give school boards discretion to use some of the money for special local needs.

Wilson continues to insist that the higher taxes imposed during the recession be returned to taxpayers. This would be achieved under the new budget, but little has been said about the billions cut from state programs in the early 1990s and never restored.

Local government has been a major loser. In 1992-93, the state took $3.6 billion in property tax revenues from local government, a figure that continues to grow as property assessments increase annually. The budget should cap the state’s take so that cities and counties at least could use the new taxes generated by their growth, an estimated $172 million this year.

A final budget should also retain a $200-million bipartisan conservation package to fund urban parks, deferred state park maintenance, habitat and open space acquisition, coastal access, farmland conservation and wetlands protection and urban parkways in Southern California. This is more than an environmentalist’s wish list. These programs have been supported by a who’s who of big business in California, from Arco to Southern California Edison. Their leaders know that a healthy economy is inextricably linked to a healthy natural environment. Other deserving items include $62 million for public libraries.

By law, the state budget must be balanced. But it needs to be balanced while supporting sectors that have been neglected in recent years, the counties uppermost.