California and the West : Senate OKs $1.9-Billion Water Bond Issue : Legislature: Southland would get 60% of funds under measure, which would pay for flood control, pollution protection and other projects. It awaits Assemby vote.

With 60% of its funds marked for Southern California, a hotly debated $1.9-billion bond issue to provide massive investment in new water supplies, pollution protection and flood control easily passed the state Senate late Thursday and headed for the Assembly.

Hours earlier, an enthusiastic Gov. Gray Davis announced his support, calling the issue an important milestone in the state’s drive to upgrade long-neglected facilities.

“[It] will provide sufficient resources to deal with water quality programs, flood protection, safe drinking water and water reliability programs,” Davis said.

The result of weeks of discussion, the proposal represented a politically cautious, middle-of-the-road solution to one of the state’s most contentious problems. It attempted to balance the needs of all the warring factions--agriculture and environmentalists, water-rich Northern California and arid Southern California--by offering something to each.

For environmentalists, it provided millions of dollars to restore wildlife habitat near rivers and streams, protect salmon and improve water quality at public beaches. For farming interests, it poured millions more into projects to control pollution caused by agricultural runoff.

To mollify Northern California cities and counties, it provided funds for flood protection and for shoring up levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Southern California got money to pay for the design and construction of underground water storage facilities, water recycling programs and water conservation projects.

Southern California water officials said the bond issue, which would go to voters on the March 2000 ballot, would not only help ensure a reliable water supply but also make it less likely that water rate increases will be needed in the near future.

“I think the real groundbreaking elements in these bonds is the fact that for the first time in recent memory, 60% of certain components apply explicitly to Southern California,” said Adan Ortega, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “That’s what’s really new in these bonds for Southern California.”

Lawmakers acknowledged privately they had deliberately tilted the funding toward Southern California because the bond issue did not include any money for more reservoirs or dams--both of which are a high priority in that part of the state.

But, they said, if those had been included the bond issue would have lost support from environmentalists and Northern Californians, who view the construction of reservoirs and dams as harmful to fish and wildlife.

The water bond issue is the biggest in a series of bond measures the Legislature will present to the voters for their approval.

A $2.1-billion issue for the maintenance and acquisition of parks (AB 18) and a $350-million proposal to construct public libraries (SB 3) have already passed the Legislature. Two other proposals--$220 million to construct forensic crime laboratories (AB 1391) and $50 million to design and build veterans’ homes (SB 630) also are expected to win legislative approval.

Davis has endorsed all five measures.

Opposition to the proposals came from lawmakers who were concerned that the bond issues would hurt the state’s fiscal stability.

“I’m worried about whether we’re putting too much debt on the ballot at the same time,” said Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey). But she voted for the water measure.

In other legislative activity Thursday:

* After an emotional debate, the Assembly passed 58 to 12 a requirement that data on race and traffic stops be collected by the California Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies. SB 78 by Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), which went back to the Senate for final OK, was prompted by complaints from minority motorists, including Murray himself, that they were unfairly stopped because of their race or ethnicity.

“It deals with an effort to prevent racial profiling” by a relatively few law enforcement officers, said Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside), a former county prosecutor who is Latino. Almost shouting, Pacheco told his colleagues: “I can take it. I can go through those experiences, but I’ve got four kids and they look like me and I don’t want them to go through that in their lives.”

Some Republicans voiced concerns that police would not have time to collect the data and the program would be too costly.

* Also with vigorous debate, the Senate approved a bill to ban discrimination against gays in public schools, revisiting an emotional issue that captivated the Capitol earlier this year. AB 537 is a resurrected version of a measure defeated in the Assembly in June. As with its predecessor, this bill, by Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), has sparked spirited opposition from religious groups and others who say it gives a single group unwarranted special protection.

“To single out a group just because they have uncontrollable passion in one direction or another is absolutely wrong,” said Sen. Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia). “Are we going to take all these strange behaviors of mankind and say they’re all protected?”

Supporters said the bill merely adds sexual orientation to the list of categories--such as gender, race and ancestry--that the Education Code protects from discrimination.

“It’s about giving all of California’s children a fair chance at education and . . . showing our children that no matter how different a person is from us, we have no right to harm, intimidate or discriminate against them,” said Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado).

The bill was headed back for a final vote, expected to be close, in the Assembly.

* A Los Angeles senator’s two-year battle to ensure that health standards protect children from air pollution has paid off, with SB 25 clearing the Legislature and awaiting action by the governor. The bill requires California’s Environmental Protection Agency to review air pollution standards to ensure they adequately protect infants and children. It also requires the California Air Resources Board to evaluate its air monitoring program and make changes to more accurately measure the exposure of infants and children to pollutants.

It also creates a Children’s Environmental Health Center to advise the governor on environmental health threats to children.

Last year the bill was dubbed a “job killer” by the California Chamber of Commerce and was vetoed by Wilson. This year, opposition was far less intense.

* Two bills regulating the use of laser pointers are on their way to the governor. Initially developed for board room presentations, the gadgets have become increasingly popular among teenagers, who point them at friends, vehicles and athletes during sporting events. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned parents and school officials about the possibility of eye damage from laser pointers. Their bright red light can also be disorienting for motorists.

A bill by Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles) makes it a misdemeanor to use one in a threatening manner. Pointing a laser at a police officer with the same intention could result in up to six months in jail under AB 221. A second measure by Assemblyman Herb Wesson (D-Los Angeles) forbids the sale of laser pointers to minors who are not accompanied by an adult. Wesson’s bill (AB 293) also bans minors from using lasers on school grounds except for educational or employment purposes.

* Schools must notify parents and staff before spraying pesticides under a bill by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco). Dubbed the Healthy Schools Act, AB 1207 began as an attempt to ban the use of pesticides on campuses, but was heavily amended after protests from agriculture and the chemical industry. It also requires the state Department of Pesticide Regulation to help schools with nonchemical methods to control pests and sets up a task force to study other potential environmental hazards at school sites.

* Lawmakers, Davis and representatives of Native Americans neared a deal that would allow expansion of gambling on Indian land. The deal would permit tribes to legally operate card games and have more than 40,000 slot machines, up from 23,500. Now, most tribes with casinos are operating in violation of the law and face the prospect of being shut down by federal law enforcement.

Tribal leaders were conferring late Thursday with Davis’ aides on a key piece of the deal--whether labor unions can organize workers at the casinos. Tribes and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees have had bitter battles over the issue, with Indians insisting that unions have little right to organize on their sovereign land.

As details of the compact between the state and tribes were being worked out, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) was preparing to push for legislative approval of a state constitutional amendment that would permit Indians to legally operate slot machines and card games. Voters would be asked to approve it in March.

Burton’s measure, Senate Constitutional Amendment 11, is part of an overall deal. Several tribes, including many with major casinos, are backing it. However, the Palm Springs-area Agua Caliente band, which has a casino, continues to press ahead with plans to place an initiative on the March ballot.

* Moving to halt the decline of fish stocks along the California coast, the state Senate passed a bill to overhaul a patchwork of ocean reserves that for the first time establishes as a key strategy fishing-exclusion zones to protect marine life. The Marine Life Protection Act is the most significant ocean-protection bill to come out of the Legislature this year.

Sponsored by Shelley, the bill commits California to setting aside diverse ocean habitats, from deep canyons to sandy flats to rocky reefs, in a coordinated network of reserves. This will benefit scientific research, keep part of the ocean pristine and create fish refuges to function as nurseries to repopulate surrounding waters depleted by overharvesting. It was awaiting final OK in the Assembly before being sent to Davis.

* The Assembly gave final passage to a measure (AB 1127) by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) to crack down on violations by employers of the state’s worker safety laws. Under current law, the death or injury of a worker can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor with a $70,000 maximum fine. Steinberg’s measure, sent to the governor on a 48-23 vote, would raise the maximum fine for a willful violation by a corporation to $1.5 million.

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Times staff writers Mark Gladstone, Dan Morain, Gary Polakovic, Amy Pyle and Jenifer Warren contributed to this report.