Davis Urges a Vote on Bond

Gov. Gray Davis urged lawmakers Friday to return to the Capitol quickly to approve measures to stimulate the economy, ranging from a $4-billion school construction bond to legislation giving workers laid off since Sept. 11 an extra $100 a week in unemployment benefits.

But even as aides announced the Democratic governor’s plan, chances appeared to be dimming that lawmakers would return by Dec. 12, the deadline for placing measures on the March ballot. Davis is calling for a $4-billion bond on the March ballot, followed by a series of other bonds that would add up to $30 billion by 2006.

“If we can resolve the issues by early next week, it is still possible,” said Susan Kennedy, Davis’ Cabinet secretary and the aide most involved in trying to broker the deal. “We’re talking.”

In the view of Davis’ aides working on the proposal, lawmakers would return only if there was agreement on the legislation that would result. Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) also has been pushing for such a deal. However, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) was skeptical--and Republicans were critical of Davis’ move on Friday.

“I don’t know if it’s workable,” Burton said.

Davis already has called for a special session to begin in January to deal with a state budget deficit expected to be as much as $12 billion. The proposal outlined Friday would focus more on the state’s economic woes, and measures would be aimed at helping create jobs.

However, the California Teachers Assn., which would pay for the bulk of the campaign for the bond, is pushing for a November vote on any school bond. The union believes that voters who turn out in March when there will be several contested Republican primaries will be more conservative--and less willing to approve bond financing--while more Democrats will vote in November.

John Hein, who oversees governmental and political affairs for the teachers union, said he might be willing to support a smaller bond that includes some money for school and housing construction. However, the governor’s aides, citing a state constitutional prohibition against measures that contain more than a single subject, doubt that such a measure would be legal.

Democrats control the Legislature and support a school bond. But Davis also would need Republican support to win the necessary two-thirds vote required to place a bond measure on the ballot, and GOP leaders were upset Friday that Davis stopped short of forcing lawmakers to return to Sacramento by calling an immediate special session.

Rather, the governor is simply urging lawmakers to reconvene to vote on a series of measures. Several legislative leaders said they were puzzled at what was being viewed as a trial balloon.

“A special session is called to express a level of determination and critical need that makes very clear the seriousness of the issue,” Sen. Charles Poochigian (R-Fresno) said. “I’m puzzled why the governor would not chose to call a special session, but to put those issues out in the public and assume he has done enough.”

Noting that Republicans called on Davis a month ago to convene a special session, Assembly Republican leader Dave Cox of Fair Oaks said Friday: “It is his job to call a special session. We’re not going to allow him to spin that. That’s just misinformation, and a misdirection of what the issues are.”

Under Davis’ proposal, laid out in a series of statements by his top aides, lawmakers would approve a statewide vote in March on a $4-billion bond to speed school construction, along with a $2-billion bond to help finance housing construction for low- and moderate-income Californians.

Additionally, legislators would approve another $6-billion school construction bond for the November ballot, plus school construction bonds of $10 billion each in 2004 and 2006, for a total of $30 billion. The money would be earmarked for new and refurbished schools over a four-year period, Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio said.

Davis also is pushing to make a $100 per week boost in unemployment benefits that he signed into law earlier this year retroactive to Sept. 11. When he signed the unemployment insurance bill into law, Davis was unaware that the benefits would not apply to people who had lost their jobs since the terrorist attacks, his aides have said.

Under the legislation, workers who are laid off are entitled to maximum weekly checks of $330 starting Jan. 1, up from the current $230 per week, a sum that is lower than benefits paid by all but four other states. However, the legislation only applies to people who lose their jobs after Jan. 1.

While Republicans generally support using the state’s authority to issue bonds to finance school construction, they would have little incentive to return to Sacramento to vote on making unemployment benefits retroactive. Republicans sided with business groups and opposed the increase in unemployment benefits.