Windfall for Courthouses, Roads Now Up to Wilson

In the last hours of political horse-trading over the state budget, Los Angeles County came away with a potential windfall--$25 million in desperately needed trial court funding and $30 million for its El Nino-damaged roadways.

But there’s a catch: Gov. Pete Wilson has a month to sign or veto the last-minute legislation. And the talk Wednesday in the hallways of Sacramento and Los Angeles indicated that he doesn’t want to sign the trial court funding bill and may be against approving the roadway funds too.

At the same time Los Angeles saw the unexpected pots of money approved Monday night by the Legislature, it also saw the escalation of political squabbling that could ultimately doom at least one of the bills, making the trial court funding available.

What’s more, that feuding--between Wilson and powerful state Democrats--resulted in a $50-million chunk of the trial court funding being taken out of the bill at the last minute, making the county’s windfall less than it could have been.

Wilson specifically wanted the $50 million, which was included in the original $162-million trial court funding bill, for court modernization throughout the state.

But in a situation akin to both sides killing off their political hostages, it was severed from the legislation by Democrats like Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, who were angry with Wilson for his refusal to approve their own demands for more money for in-home services for the frail elderly and others to stay at home, county officials said.

Wilson feels betrayed about that, according to county officials who said Wednesday that they fear he will kill the entire package as a result.

Wilson also may not sign the roadway improvement bill, which would provide a total of $200 million to cities and counties around the state, because his Department of Transportation is opposed to it. Caltrans says the bill would undermine its own efforts to parcel out the money to those local governments most deserving of it.

Wilson’s own spokesman did little to convince county leaders that they will actually receive the funds.

Sean Walsh, Wilson’s spokesman, said it’s “unclear where we are going” on both bills.

But he said Wilson was “extremely disappointed” at the elimination of the $50 million in courthouse modernization.

“Everyone universally agreed that it was a good thing; it just seemed to get caught up in some end-of-session politics,” Walsh said. “It was just good government. It just does not make sense that this was killed.”

As for the roadway money, Walsh said the governor usually listens to the recommendations of his department heads, but not always.

“He’s an independent guy,” Walsh said. “So I can’t tell you what he’ll do with the bill.”

County Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen said he’s glad the county didn’t budget any of the money, because he doesn’t think Wilson will approve either of the bills.

“It’s normally the case that the governor supports his own departments,” Janssen said in predicting the demise of the roadway funds. “Barring a last-minute deal that none of us have heard about, he has been pretty free with his blue [veto] pencil.”

Janssen also held out little hope that Wilson will approve the trial court funding package.

About $112 million was approved by the Legislature amid a flurry of 11th-hour compromises, including $25 million for Los Angeles. The money is part of a legislative effort to allow the state to take over the operations of courthouses around California, and essentially buy out the counties’ role in it.

As a result, the county hasn’t budgeted any money for trial court funding this year. But Janssen said the county is still responsible for repairing and upgrading courthouses, and that it desperately needs the $25 million to do so.

Dan Wall, the county’s chief legislative advocate in Sacramento, said Wednesday he believes Wilson will sign both bills. But to be successful, he added, the county will have to launch a full-scale lobbying effort in the coming weeks.

“We’re going to have to work to get them signed,” said Wall, an 18-year veteran of Sacramento politics. “They are not gimmes. We’re going to have to really show the governor all the whys and wherefores.”

Wall said he hopes to enlist the five county supervisors, especially the two Republicans, Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe, who have a pipeline to Wilson’s office.

Wall also hopes to get judges, county Department of Public Works officials, state lawmakers from the Los Angeles delegation and others involved.

Janssen said he’ll get to work as well.

“We will do everything we can to get him to sign,” said Janssen.