Davis Isn’t Buying Big-Box Bill’s Express-Aisle Push

Gov. Gray Davis has no intention of signing the “big-box” bill. He’s not a big fool.

“Highly unlikely,” says an advisor, leaving the governor a smidgen of wiggle room. No final decision has been made. Davis hasn’t even thought much about it.

He doesn’t need to. How could any self-respecting governor endorse this cynical, clumsy legislative insult to democratic deliberation and debate?

Even Davis, who has been around the Capitol 25 years, shook his head in disbelief when an aide told him about the bill on the final day of the legislative session, Sept. 10. Davis leans toward local control of land-use decisions, which this bill would trample. But that’s not what caused the head-shaking. It was the way the bill was being bulldozed through the Legislature without any semblance of public scrutiny.

The bill, by Assemblyman Dick Floyd (D-Wilmington), would crush future big boxes--discount stores like Costco, Wal-Mart and Kmart. Any new retail outlet bigger than 100,000 square feet could not use more than 15,000 square feet for nontaxable groceries or prescription drugs.

There may be merit to this idea. The way we’re headed, someday there’ll be just one big store in America.

The bill’s advocates--supermarkets and unions--argue that the big boxes squash smaller businesses and turn downtowns into ghost towns. They pay low wages and many are not unionized, particularly the Wal-Marts.

The behemoths, it’s noted, seduce cities into bidding wars for sales-tax revenues by demanding financial incentives--kickbacks--for locating within the city boundaries. Then they “bait and switch” by turning much of the store into a grocery that generates no sales tax.

The bill’s outraged opponents counter that government shouldn’t interfere in the marketplace. That’s a laugher. Tariffs, subsidies, zoning, incentives--they all interfere in the marketplace.

OK, critics say, but land use should be left to local government. Always has been. Right--just look around at our leapfrogging urban sprawl and see the result.

The point is that all this is worthy of debate--but in the open, and for more than the total two hours it got during the final three days of this year’s legislative session.

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This brash bill had even the most jaded lobbyists shaking their heads with the governor. Nobody could remember a move quite so brazen.

There’s nothing new about 11th-hour deals in the Legislature. Nimble-footed trade-offs and power plays are part of the game. As one of the competing lobbyists told me, “None of us are virgins here.”

What made this different, however, was that a significant new proposal--with major statewide impact on businesses, consumers and the economy--suddenly came from nowhere at the last minute. It was novel material.

A coalition of supermarket chains--Safeway, Ralphs, Vons--plus the checkout clerks union, took the proposal to pro-labor Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) just before the Labor Day weekend.

To short-circuit the legislative process and avoid public notices and committee hearings, an unrelated Assembly bill was hijacked on the Senate floor the day after Labor Day. A measure by Assemblyman Brett Granlund (R-Yucaipa) was gutted and converted into Floyd’s big-box bill. This was fine with Granlund, leading to suspicion.

Granlund is a longtime friend of billionaire Ron Burkle, the Ralphs tycoon and major Davis bankroller. The Capitol corridors were filled with conspiracy theorists who envisioned Burkle behind the scenes, pulling the strings of political puppets. Forget it. Burkle sold Ralphs last year. He retains a minor interest, but actually owns as much of Kmart. He’s sympathetic toward the bill, a spokesman says, but hasn’t been involved.

The bill--stage-managed and strong-armed by Burton and Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles)--was denied a committee hearing in the Senate. It got a brief going-over in the Assembly. Both houses passed it narrowly, basically on party-line votes.

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What normally would take a minimum of four months--and often two years--was ramrodded in one week.

“It’s an abomination,” says Sen. Jackie Speier of Daly City, one of the few dissenting Democrats. “It was an 11th-hour slam jam that shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Too clever, too cynical, too arrogant, too sneaky, too sleazy. The big-box bill was a big blunder.

It’s an example of how one-party rule could run amok with a weak, compliant governor. But this was one power play by the Democratic legislative leadership that even a Democratic governor cannot support. It has less to do with being a centrist than having common sense.