Panel Finishes Work on State Spending Plan

A legislative committee negotiating the state’s next budget completed its work Saturday on an estimated $100-billion spending plan that Republican legislators have vowed to oppose.

That sets the stage for a possible political standoff next week, when the plan is scheduled to come up for a vote in both houses of the Legislature. A prolonged debate could force Gov. Gray Davis to break a constitutional deadline for signing the document by July 1.

The spending blueprint adopted Saturday by members of a special budget-writing committee is largely the product of negotiations between the Davis administration and Democratic leaders who control both houses of the Legislature. The parties struggled this month to make $1.2 billion in spending cuts to help build a bigger reserve, as requested by Davis.

Casualties included a $300-million overhaul of the state’s foster care system, which was sought by Assembly Democrats but eventually got whittled down to a couple of programs totaling about $18 million. Legislators also reduced by about $400 million the amount they had hoped to shower on education but still managed to give schools $4.1 billion more than required by law.

“There just was not enough money to do all the things we wanted to do this year,” said Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, the Sylmar Democrat who headed the committee that negotiated the spending plan.

The plan, which covers fiscal 2001-02, includes a $2.2-billion reserve, a sum that falls short of the $2.5 billion to $3 billion sought by Davis, who is expected to employ the blue pencil he uses to make additional cuts.

“We’re still looking to try and boost the amount of the reserve,” finance spokesman Sandy Harrison said. “We’re looking at all expenditures closely to see what savings might be out there.”

Areas that are likely to receive scrutiny by Davis include new spending targeted at higher education and health and human services.

Some Programs Are Spared From Cutbacks

Proposals that escaped the knife--at least for now--include a $30-million plan to bolster trauma care in California and about $200 million to aid low-performing schools. Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy Romer estimates that his district could receive $70 million of the latter pot of money.

“I have to feel good about the money the Legislature and governor [are] giving us at a time when funding is tough,” Romer said.

The budget blueprint also contains $120 million to cover special requests made by individual legislators. These requests, referred to in political circles as “pork barrel projects” because of their ability to fatten up a budget, typically benefit specific legislative districts as opposed to addressing statewide needs.

This year they include $200,000 for Manhattan Beach to rehabilitate Polliwog Park, $80,000 for new playground equipment at Jackson Elementary School in Santa Ana and $200,000 for the Grammy Foundation to expand programs offered at the Leonard Bernstein Center.

Left unaddressed, however, are a series of demands made by Republican legislators whose approval of the budget is necessary for it to be forwarded to Davis to sign in time for the July 1 start of the next fiscal year. The spending plan completed Saturday, which failed to win the support of the budget-writing committee’s two Republican members, is expected to be taken up by both houses of the Legislature as early as Wednesday.

“This budget is DOA,” said Lancaster Assemblyman George Runner, the Republican’s point man on budget matters in the lower house. “As in dead on arrival.”

Runner’s Republican counterpart in the upper house, Irvine Sen. Dick Ackerman, said: “They have not met our expectations. They didn’t do a good job on the reserve.”

GOP Wants Bigger Reserve, Sales Tax Cut

Republicans are seeking a reserve of at least $3 billion and the elimination of a quarter percentage point sales tax for another year. They also want voters to be allowed to decide whether sales taxes that are paid on gasoline should be dedicated to transportation projects, and they want funding for urban and rural schools to be made equal.

Democratic leaders said they expect the reserve to grow after Davis makes additional cuts to the plan. But they sent mixed signals over whether they will support the Republicans’ request that a constitutional amendment be put before voters to decide whether to permanently dedicate gasoline tax revenue to transportation projects.

The Democrats also gave no indication that they are willing to give in to Republican demands for a continuation of a quarter percentage point sales tax reduction through the end of fiscal 2001-02--a proposal that carries a $600-million price tag.

With key issues continuing to divide the two parties, conditions appear ripe for a standoff next week between Democratic and Republican legislators when the budget comes up for a vote in the Legislature.

“The issue is whether they have any sense of respect for meeting the deadline,” said Sen. Steve Peace, the El Cajon Democrat who heads the Senate Budget Committee. “If they think having an academic pie in the sky debate is more productive than the responsibility of getting their work done on time, that’s their choice.”

“How can you have a reserve that is this large on the one hand and then ask for further tax relief,” Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) asked. “There is already $5.4 billion in tax cuts in this budget we just passed.”

Senate GOP Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga said the bulk of the tax cut could be found by taking $400 million he contends is budgeted for vacant state positions and funneling the money back to the general fund. Runner said an additional $120 million could be had by scrapping legislators’ special requests.

“This is not what responsible budgeting is all about,” Runner said.