Legislators curb their enthusiasm

Like every other politician from Los Angeles, Assemblyman Mike Feuer would like to clear clogged freeways. Like every other legislator peering into the state budget’s $14-billion hole, he doesn’t have any money to do it.

So Feuer, a Democrat, is doing what he can: He has introduced legislation to make it easier for cities and counties to raise taxes to pay for road improvements.

“I am acutely aware of the crisis we’re in,” Feuer said last week. He said lawmakers must be sure not to “make that budget gap any worse.”

California’s lopsided budget has squashed legislative ambitions this year and made it unlikely that lawmakers will be able to do much more than drag spending and revenue back into balance.

Asked about his legislative agenda this year, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) replied: “Survival?”

His counterpart in the Assembly, Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), welcomed colleagues back to the Capitol last week by saying, “If in any year we’re going to earn our pay, it will be in 2008.”

Unfortunately for many legislators, the out-of-whack budget comes in an election year, when they are especially eager to introduce splashy bills and trumpet accomplishments. And this is no ordinary election year.

No one knows whether voters will approve Proposition 93 on Feb. 5. That measure would tweak term limits to allow 34 sitting lawmakers, who would otherwise be ineligible after this year, to run for their offices again and, if successful, to stay four to six more years.

The hopes of dozens of current and potential legislators hinge on the measure. Some count on its failure to clear spots for them, while others hope to extend their careers in Sacramento.

If voters reject the initiative, jockeying will begin immediately to replace the Legislature’s termed-out leaders: Nunez, Perata and Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine.

Those contests would consume the Capitol at the same time that more than half of the Legislature may be running for reelection or a new seat.

“The election is absolutely a distraction,” Ackerman said.

The Senate will soon vote on ambitious legislation pending from last year: a $14.4-billion plan to extend health insurance to nearly all Californians. Championed by Nunez and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the bill passed the Assembly in December but cannot be enacted, even if it passes the Senate, unless voters approve a companion financing plan on a future ballot.

Other than the budget, it may be the only major piece of legislation pursued this year, Nunez said. Perata and Assembly Republican Leader Michael Villines (R-Clovis) last week dropped their joint call for a water conservation and storage bond issue on the November ballot.

“Early in the year, we hope to celebrate the approval of healthcare reform,” Nunez said. “But outside of that, it’s going to be a very challenging year. I don’t see a lot else getting done.”

Still, legislative exuberance runs high in January, when the June 15 budget deadline seems far away and lawmakers are fresh from a four-month break, full of ideas and eager to dust off bills waylaid the previous year.

Among the Democrats’ agenda items this year: increasing oversight of health insurance companies; indexing the state’s $8-an-hour minimum wage so it rises automatically each year; requiring mortgage lenders to reveal details of how they are helping homeowners avoid foreclosure; phasing out fast-food containers that can’t be recycled; and creating a Cabinet-level “secretary to end poverty” position.

Republicans say they want to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District; keep the Legislature in round-the-clock session without pay if it fails to pass a budget by June 15; increase payments to medical providers who care for patients in the state-run health insurance program called Medi-Cal; and repeal a law that allows undocumented immigrant students to pay in-state college tuition and replace it with free tuition at state universities for California National Guard members.

“The budget is going to drive everything this year,” Villines said.

Some legislators have already begun repackaging last year’s stalled bills.

Last year, for example, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) failed in his attempt to require that most dogs and cats in California be spayed or neutered, a contentious measure that drew angry pet owners to the Capitol in protest.

In reviving the measure this year, Levine is emphasizing the fiscal rather than the humane benefits of preventing litters of unwanted cats and dogs. He argues that his bill would save state and local governments at least $120 million a year.

“This bill is consistent with dealing with the budget,” Levine said, “because of the potential savings.”

Feuer said the state’s weak revenues are a good reason to help cities and counties raise taxes to fix roads and ease congestion. On Monday, he introduced a bill that would allow local governments to borrow money for transportation projects with 55% voter approval, instead of the two-thirds vote now required.

“The state fiscal crisis cannot consign cities and counties to be perpetually gridlocked,” Feuer said.

His bill would amend the state Constitution and therefore requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature as well as voter approval. Several Republican votes would be needed for lawmakers to place the measure on the ballot, even if all the Democrats voted for it. That’s a high hurdle -- the same one the state budget must clear -- given the traditional Republican resistance to raising taxes.

Feuer said that traffic congestion is “not a partisan issue” and that he hoped his legislation would foster across-the-aisle cooperation.

“I think it’s really going to be important for us to try to find ways for Republicans and Democrats to work as a team as much as possible,” he said. “The budget issues are going to strike a lot of raw nerves.”

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nancy.vogel@latimes.com

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com