Politics Deepens a Crisis

In times of fire, flood and earthquake, public officials put aside political differences for the good of the people. Not so with the electricity crisis. Minority Republicans in the state Assembly, with a single exception, teamed up Monday to defeat $13.4billion in revenue bonds intended to pay for the state’s emergency power purchases and restore its sinking credit rating.

For weeks, state Treasurer Phil Angelides has carefully crafted a financing plan to get California out of the business of buying power. These purchases have consumed an estimated $6 billion of the state budget and threaten to gobble up the entire expected budget surplus, roughly $8 billion.

Gov. Gray Davis promised that with a $4-billion bridge loan Angelides had arranged, and then the revenue bonds, he could repay the state’s General Fund and continue buying power. The bonds would be paid for by the customers of the troubled private power companies over several years.

Without the bonds, the state could easily run out of cash paying for power purchases. Ultimately, new roads, state park upgrades and other infrastructure are likely to go unbuilt, and even education and health care spending could be cut. And, of course, investors will shy away from California investments.

In the Assembly Tuesday, the GOP members insisted the state simply write off the first $5 billion of state spending instead of replenishing the coffers with the revenue bonds. They complained that Davis has no solid game plan, that the state is not building new power plants quickly enough and that the Democrats are seeking bigger government. Even justifiable complaints won’t finance the state’s emergency spending. Would the naysayers prefer to let the lights go out altogether?

The only Republican to vote for the bonds was Assemblyman Anthony Pescetti (R-Rancho Cordova), who is a former board member of the Sacramento municipal power utility. Pescetti rightly said it was not fair to saddle municipal power customers in Los Angeles and elsewhere with the cost of buying electricity for private utility customers.

He said the Angelides-Davis plan “promised to bring some stability and reliability” to the state’s fiscal position.

With this sensible measure blocked, no bonds can be issued before late August at the earliest, and the state’s budget may be left in tatters. All of this so Assembly Republicans could make a rather murky political point.

Here are the Southern California members who voted no: Patricia Bates of Laguna Niguel, Russ Bogh of Cherry Valley, Bill Campbell of Villa Park, John Campbell of Irvine, Lynn Daucher of Brea, Tom Harman of Huntington Beach, Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta, David G. Kelley of Idyllwild, Bill Leonard of San Bernardino, Ken Maddox of Garden Grove, Dennis Mountjoy of Monrovia, Robert Pacheco of Walnut, Rod Pacheco of Riverside, Keith Richman of Northridge, George Runner Jr. of Lancaster, Tony Strickland of Moorpark and Phil Wyman of Tehachapi.

To let these deal-killers know they’ll be remembered when blackouts roll through, contact them through https://www.assembly.ca.gov.