Lawmakers scramble to revive measure
Public works bond would go on June ballot
By Don Thompson, The Associated Press
March 13, 2006
SACRAMENTO — Like punch-drunk boxers, state lawmakers staggered around Sunday trying to decide if they have enough fight left to revive the largest public works bond measure in California history in time for voters' approval in June.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez canceled a Sunday evening Assembly session but was hopeful a deal could be crafted for an Assembly vote Monday, in time for a last-ditch vote by senators who rejected a Democratic plan early Saturday.
Talks resumed Sunday between Nunez, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Assembly Republican Leaders Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and George Plescia of La Jolla and their aides.
"We're trying to resolve our differences. There's still some outstanding issues," Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said in a telephone interview as he prepared to meet with the Republican governor.
Nunez said the sticking point was Republicans' insistence on including money for a dam and reservoir. He said that creates political problems for Democrats, many of whom oppose the environmental costs and question whether the state should be in the dam-building business.
"We're in the sausage making stage," said Schwarzenegger's press secretary, Margita Thompson. "It's all in flux."
Even if the governor and Assembly leaders agree, it may be too late.
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, sent senators home in disgust early Saturday after a nearly $49 billion borrowing plan failed on a party-line vote. An aide reiterated Sunday that Perata is so upset that he expects no reconsideration even Monday.
"The question remains: Is there the political will on the Senate side?" said Nunez.
Moreover, Schwarzenegger and Assembly leaders were negotiating under the assumption lawmakers could approve a plan Monday and still have it appear on the June ballot.
But that deadline passed last Friday, said Nghia Nguyen Demovic, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Bruce McPherson. Election officials need that much time to provide legally required public notice of the bond measure, solicit pro and con arguments for voter pamphlets, print those pamphlets and mail them to 12 million households by May 16.
To extend Friday's deadline, Schwarzenegger and lawmakers would have to pass a law shortening the public review period and appropriating money to print a supplemental ballot. The state printer would then have to decide if printing a supplemental ballot is physically feasible, she said. The extra cost and time would depend largely on how many pages would be required to explain the massive bond deal.
Perata said lawmakers should admit defeat and focus on seeking voters' approval for a borrowing plan in November.
An Assembly-approved plan Monday would come too late for senators to give it any responsible consideration, said Perata, echoing Republicans' complaint about the $48.8 billion proposal Democrats put forth for a doomed vote early Saturday. That plan fell three votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to send it to the Assembly.
Even if it is too late for voters' June approval, aides said the governor and legislative leaders want a plan in place quickly for the November ballot, before they tackle the state budget and before winning re-election becomes politicians' overriding concern.
Senate Democrats' proposal is roughly $20 billion smaller than the $68 billion in debt originally sought by Schwarzenegger to pay for roads, schools, ports, mass transit, parks and levee repairs as part of a $222 billion, 10-year infrastructure renewal program.
Perata said Schwarzenegger and legislators missed their best chance to seize the momentum generated by the specter of a New Orleans-style collapse of the sodden levee system that protects millions of people and the water supply that sustains crops and two-thirds of the state's residents as far south as Los Angeles.
"This has been a persistent problem, and I don't think there is any doubt that the money ... is there for this administration to fix those levees," Perata warned early Saturday.
"I don't care how you stack it up, something goes wrong, somebody is going to be looking for somebody."
He and Republican lawmakers blamed Schwarzenegger for failing to lead on an issue the governor made the crux of his re-election campaign, one Perata said is vital to the state's future.
But Nunez said he is so committed to finding a compromise that he canceled his wedding reception for about 200 guests at downtown Los Angeles' private California Club Friday night.