Rare On-Time State Budget a Win for Davis

Gov. Gray Davis’ early prediction of an on-time budget looks today like the political version of Babe Ruth pointing to the spot of his next home run.

Budget writing in Sacramento has been such a gladiator sport that only one budget in the last 13 years has been ready when the fiscal year begins July 1.

So Thursday, hours after the Legislature approved its $81.7-billion plan with a lopsided total vote of 105-13, there were boastful claims of bipartisan teamwork and hopeful speculation that Sacramento might shed some of its image of ineffectiveness.

“This budget demonstrates what we can accomplish when we attack our common problems rather than one another,” Davis beamed at a news conference.

“When I was inaugurated, I said I wanted to lower the decibel level, I wanted to end wedge issues and focus our energies on the common needs and aspirations of the good people we represent,” he added. “The remarkable work the Legislature has done . . . shows we are on the right track.”

The broad support for the budget--exceeding any legislative budget vote for at least 30 years--was especially surprising to Davis and party leaders. The vote spanned all 70 of the Democrats present, the Legislature’s lone independent and 26 of the 48 Republicans.

“It’s a remarkable thing to get that many Republicans voting for a Democratic budget when the whole pattern in the ‘80s and ‘90s has been increasingly partisan,” said Bruce Cain, a political scientist at UC Berkeley. “It’s a hopeful sign.”

The budget’s early passage was so unexpected that one Central Valley lawmaker could not vote because he got caught out of town on a fishing trip.

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) joked: “I could have gone broke. I would have bet my life this would not happen.”

Davis showed his thanks at the bipartisan news conference by passing out pin-striped train engineer caps to the legislative leaders as a symbol of his administration’s unofficial theme: “The Little Engine That Could.”

The governor said he will sign the budget before July 1. But first he is expected to slash some of the spending with his line-item veto authority.

Davis declined to talk about details, but he is expected to cut millions from the expansion of health care programs to the poor that was backed by Democrats. He said he is concerned that ambitious health care commitments could cause fiscal problems for the state in weak economic times.

The speedy budget passage clearly benefited from two major factors: a $4.5-billion surplus generated by a surging California economy and Democratic control of both chambers in the Legislature as well as the governor’s office.

But that is not all of the story.

Last year’s $75.4-billion budget included a nearly identical surplus and it was not signed until Aug. 21. Also, the strongest critics of Davis’ initial budget proposal were Democrats.

They openly complained just a month ago that the governor did not spend enough on education and health care and there was too much targeted for prisons and tax cuts.

“No budget will be rammed down our throats,” Burton told reporters at the time.

But in negotiations over the last month, Democrats got much of what they wanted. More money was added to education and mandates for schools were lifted; cash for a new prison was dropped and replaced with a long-term loan; health care spending was significantly raised and the environmental budget was doubled.

At the same time, Davis also accommodated most Republican plans.

In April, GOP senators issued a list of budget items missing from the governor’s January proposal, such as more road and sewer repair money, a cut in university and college fees, more for local government, and a $500-million reduction in vehicle license fees.

“We gave a clear road map to what was necessary to get Senate Republican support for the budget,” Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga) said Thursday. “All of our proposals are reflected in this budget, either in their entirety or in a compromise version.”

In hindsight, Davis observers say the budget process showed once again that he is a minimalist governor who will avoid as many fights as he can.

Spending on education--Davis’ top priority--is just $200 million over the legally required minimum. Thanks to the surplus, schools will get about $2.6 billion more than last year. But even then, Democrats estimate California is about $1.8 billion short of the national average in per-pupil spending.

Also, the budget’s other defining cornerstone--the vehicle tax cut--was a vision of Republicans, who redirected money Davis had earmarked for a cautious savings account.

“A policy win that occurs off the public’s radar screen does not appear to be worth the political hit for him,” said Republican analyst Dan Schnur. “In the short term, that’s great for him. In the long term, it could be a problem.”

Political observers were reluctant to predict that Davis or the legislators will see a major boost in popularity because they finally did their job on time.

“The public expects that,” said San Francisco pollster Mark DiCamillo.

But for the first time in a while, their image will not suffer from an overdue budget. And “for most voters, the absence of a negative is a positive,” Schnur said.

Perhaps more significant for Davis, the latest victory adds to a political juggernaut that has sent his popularity soaring.

Since he won a landslide election in November, Davis has scored a series of victories highlighted by a package of education bills he steered through the Legislature last spring and a historic new relationship with Mexico.

“What happens now is that there becomes a bit of an accumulation of promises kept,” said Democratic strategist Kam Kuwata. “Does this stand out individually? Not as much. But as an accumulation, it appears this guy does know what he’s doing.”

Few issues have been a higher priority for Davis over more years than getting a state budget on time.

In 1995, a panel of state bureaucrats considering changes to the California Constitution asked dozens of Sacramento veterans to identify the major structural problems in government.

Then-Lt. Gov. Davis was adamant.

“There is no aspect of state government that threatens our relationship with the public more than the annual carnival of adopting a new state budget,” he said. “There is more at stake than just improving technical aspects of a process. What’s on the line is restoring public faith and confidence in our competence as leaders.”

In 1992, Davis was the state controller who issued IOUs to pay California’s overdue bills and employee paychecks because lawmakers had not agreed on a budget nearly two months after the fiscal year began July 1.

Davis came out of that experience angry and armed with a demanding plan to crack down on dilatory politicians.

He suggested that they forfeit their pay when the budget is late, adopt two-year budgets instead of one, shorten their sessions to six months instead of a year, and be prohibited from making new laws--except in emergencies--during part of the nonbudget years.

Davis has not raised such changes as governor because most would require amendments to the state Constitution that could only be passed by voters. But he did take a new approach to the budget negotiations this year.

Just demanding a budget on time is one departure from the past. Previous governors have hesitated to draw such lines in the sand, opting instead to let opponents assume they will hold out as long as it takes for their policy objectives.

Davis also avoided the traditional leadership meetings--known as the “Big Five”--in which the governor met privately with the top Republican and Democratic leaders from both the Assembly and the Senate.

Instead of such closed-door meetings, the major portions of the new state budget were determined in public hearings before legislative panels.

Just what all of the changes and consensus mean for future cooperation in Sacramento remains to be seen, lawmakers said.

It is too early to predict that Capitol partisans have been de-fanged by the governor’s focus on centrist politics, they said. And nobody is certain the budget negotiations will not revert to old patterns next year.

“I don’t see a trend,” said Senate Republican Leader Ross Johnson (R-Irvine).