Rifts With Davis Threaten Legislature’s Momentum

After a monthlong vacation, state lawmakers today will launch the stretch drive of a productive legislative session that has abruptly turned ugly between Gov. Gray Davis and majority Democrats.

The leaders of the Senate and Assembly insist that a series of rifts with fellow Democrat Davis are being mended and Californians can look forward to substantial accomplishments in the next four weeks before adjournment.

A senior spokesman for Davis, communications director Phil Trounstine, predicted a “spirit of cooperation” will be recaptured because “everybody wants to get the people’s work done.”

But Trounstine added last week, “The governor is going to do his best to ensure that his vision of what is best for California is accomplished.”

At stake are hundreds of bills, ranging from overhauling managed health care in California and cracking down on deadbeat parents to imposing new controls on guns and pumping billions of dollars into parks, housing, water systems and other public works.

“We’ve had a great year so far. My goal is to finish off in the same way,” Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) said last week.

Villaraigosa said the Assembly’s Democrats will “bend over backward” to reach accommodations with Davis, “but where we cannot, the Legislature has the responsibility to keep its commitments to our constituents.”

Davis, who has been criticized for ignoring the Legislature except on his own pet programs, promised Friday that in the final month he will be “far more involved than we have been to this point” in the process of making laws.

“We got behind the curve a bit,” said Davis, a former assemblyman.

Democrats happily recount the early accomplishments of the first Legislature and governor of the same party to control state government decision-making in a generation.

They include enactment of a $83.1-billion budget on time, swift adoption of Davis’ education reform package at a special session, stronger controls on assault guns and protecting older workers against age discrimination in layoffs.

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton said he, too, foresees a “very fruitful” conclusion of the legislative session, but warned that the Legislature is likely to send the politically moderate governor some bills he won’t want to sign.

“When it gets down to HMO reform and some other stuff, I just think the Legislature will have a different point of view. The governor will have to determine what he will do,” Burton said.

In spite of public declarations of cooperation, some members of the Sacramento lobby corps remain skeptical. “I think we’re looking at four weeks of misery,” said one seasoned business lobbyist who did not want to be identified.

In June, Davis angered liberal Democrats by vetoing from the budget more than $400 million in spending for health, education and welfare. He stoked the fire last month by telling editors of the San Francisco Chronicle that it was the Legislature’s “job” to “implement my vision” of what is best for California.

Democrats were already furious because Davis had warned the Legislature against sending him a truckload (about 70) of managed care reform bills, some of them duplicative and others conflicting.

The warning came on the heels of a Davis campaign fund-raiser attended by the state’s leading managed care executives, who oppose legislation that would increase costs.

Davis said he would accept only a handful of unspecified bills and appointed a task force to try to develop a consensus program for the session’s final month.

As a result, said Assemblyman Martin Gallegos (D-Baldwin Park), a managed care expert and task force member, “I think you are going to see reform consistent with the governor’s moderate, centrist, incremental approach.”

Gallegos said such a program probably would include bills to allow private employer patients to sue their health plans for damages resulting from the delay or denial of services, a new state regulatory organization, an independent review of disputed health care decisions and addition of mandated new benefits such as mental health services.

“It’s a matter of hammering out the details,” he said. The proposals will not satisfy everybody but “these are things that we never would have gotten under Gov. Wilson,” he said.

Davis, who during his election campaign repeatedly insisted that doctors--not managed care operators--should make medical decisions for patients, told reporters Friday he believes “we can create a comprehensive package that can be signed this year.”

High on Democratic lawmakers’ priority list is a bill by Sen. Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont) that would allow workers of private employers in California to sue their health plan for damages resulting from the delay or denial of medically necessary services. Currently, government employees can file such suits but private industry workers cannot.

“I will hold HMOs liable if they practice medicine,” Davis told reporters.

Other issues remain to be resolved, including:

GUNS--In the wake of another wave of bloody firearms crimes, including the murder last week of a postal worker and wounding of five people at a Jewish community center in the San Fernando Valley, additional restrictions on firearms appear headed for Davis’ desk.

Proposals include requiring handguns sold in California to be equipped with trigger locks or other safety devices. Other measures include subjecting cheap handguns to consumer safety tests before they can be sold, and imposing stricter regulation of sales at gun shows.

AUTO INSURANCE--Legislation aimed at making California highways safer by lowering the costs of car insurance to low-income motorists appears headed for final negotiations. Under a plan by Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier), good drivers in a family of three whose annual gross income totaled about $20,000 or less would be able to purchase a no-frills policy for $320 to $400 a year.

Escutia argues that low-cost coverage could be obtained without subsidies from other insured motorists, a claim disputed by the insurance industry. The Legislature has hired an independent actuary to study figures from both sides and report findings to lawmakers.

BONDS--The state Department of Finance estimated that bond issues proposed by the Legislature are worth a staggering $33.5 billion--far more than the lawmakers, governor and voters will accept. In the next couple of weeks, the list is expected to be pared down in negotiations.

A public works projects task force appointed by Davis and led by Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has recommended that $5 billion worth of bond issues be put on the ballot next year as a down payment on rehabilitation of California’s deteriorating public works.

The infrastructure needs of California have been estimated to approach or exceed $100 billion, but the task force proposed that bond issue borrowing be restricted to $5 billion on next year’s ballot and that alternative sources be examined for other projects.

The task force suggested bond issues to finance housing, parks, water projects and rail and ferry transportation improvements.

LABOR--Bills backed by organized labor, a major backer of Davis and other Democrats, are expected to reach the governor, who has not said how he intends to deal with them. One, by Sen. Hilda Solis (D-La Puente), would increase compensation payments to certain injured workers who, supporters say, received short shrift five years ago when the Legislature and former Gov. Pete Wilson reformed the costly workers’ compensation system. Another bill would increase maximum jobless insurance payments to $300 a week from $230. The bills are opposed by employers, who would finance both programs.

SUPPORT--The Legislature is expected to thoroughly shake up California’s trouble-plagued system for collecting about $13 billion in delinquent child support payments. Critics contend that as a whole, local district attorneys have done a pitiful job of enforcing child support collections. A bill by Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) and Burton would take enforcement of child support away from local prosecutors and transfer it to proposed new local government agencies, which would be supervised by a new state agency.

Critics of the plan contend that an accurate and reliable electronic tracking system is needed to chase down deadbeat parents and make them pay, but note that the bill does not assure such a reform.

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Times staff writers Virginia Ellis and Dave Lesher contributed to this report.