Brown Offers Election Year Spending Plan

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, in an election-year image-bolstering effort, called in a televised speech Wednesday for major new spending on state projects ranging from the search for an AIDS vaccine to a massive bond-financed program to aid hard-pressed farmers.

The Speaker also offered solutions to several other problems, including the need for expanded school facilities, a reform of the state’s liability insurance laws and opening of overseas markets for California goods.

Addressing legislators in the Assembly chambers, as an orbiting satellite carried his words to several California TV stations, Brown praised accomplishments of the Legislature in approving balanced budgets and contended, “We addressed the issues that affected the lives of the people of this state.”

Brown also sought to explain the Assembly’s rejection on Monday of Republican Gov. George Deukmejian’s beefed-up toxic waste program and promised to provide a Democratic alternative.

Although declaring that he “desperately” wants to see a Democrat win this year’s gubernatorial election, Brown pledged not to “allow you (lawmakers) to introduce campaign politics into the (legislative) process.”

Long-Planned Speech

The speech, in the planning stages since early December, was carried live by a handful of television stations and was timed specifically to try to upstage Deukmejian, who is slated to deliver his annual State of the State message today to a joint session of the Legislature.

In his characteristic style, Brown, considered the Legislature’s most charismatic orator, spoke without a prepared text. However, his remarks were uncharacteristically conciliatory in tone, largely devoid of the kinds of stinging barbs for which the three-term Speaker has become known.

His speech, for example, was liberally sprinkled with references to Republicans as well as Democrats in hopes of projecting a spirit of bipartisan cooperation.

Many of the issues given prominence in Brown’s speech have been on the Democratic agenda previously or have been before the Legislature in one form of another. But by presenting his and his Democratic colleagues’ list of legislative priorities before Deukmejian’s address--rather than just reacting to the governor--Brown hoped to avoid being viewed as a complainer who only criticizes the governor and never offers constructive programs of his own.

That is considered particularly crucial this year when all 80 seats in the lower house are up for grabs, and Deukmejian has gone on a well-publicized campaign up and down the state to discredit Brown and Assembly Democrats.

In his own bid for a second term, Deukmejian has characterized Brown as an obstructionist and the Assembly leadership as “totally irresponsible and arrogant” for blocking the Administration’s toxics program and major portions of the governor’s prison construction plan.

Brown, according to associates, also was attempting to change his image as a politician more interested in political games and campaign fund raising than as a public official concerned about substantive issues and good government. He emphasized that point in his remarks, saying that the Democratic agenda was “generated by my own interest in problem solving for the state of California.”

Brown homed in on the toxic waste issue, suggesting a Democratic alternative to Deukmejian’s plan for placing all departments that now deal with hazardous waste under a new department of waste management. Brown’s program envisions a state environmental protection agency that would have expanded authority to deal with the problem.

Among other ideas suggested by Brown were:

- Creation of an insurance rate review board to investigate premiums charged to citizens for all types of personal and property insurance. Brown said there is “no justification” for insurance companies unfairly “redlining” some communities, a practice that often results in higher premiums for residents of poor and minority neighborhoods.

- A state-administered insurance fund that would be available to local governments to pay huge liability insurance settlements that have recently caused many communities to go uninsured. Brown is advancing that plan, which is supported by trial lawyers, as an alternative to an initiative on the June ballot that would limit government liability in many types of injury suits and thus reduce the income of attorneys whose pay is commonly a proportion of the damage award. Brown, besides being a powerful politician, is a private attorney.

- Legislation that would increase funds for school construction. Many school districts have experienced large enrollment increases but have little money to expand their classrooms. Deukmejian last year vetoed a package of bills intended to address the problem.

- A study to be headed by Assembly Ways and Means Chairman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) to determine what is needed to find a vaccine for AIDS.

- A massive bond-financed program under state Treasurer Jesse Unruh that would make low interest loans to farmers who are losing their land because of overproduction and falling prices.

Two-Thirds Votes Needed

Many of the items on the Democrats’ legislative laundry list require a two-thirds vote for legislative passage and thus will need the backing of at least some Republicans. It is unclear how Brown’s programs will be viewed in the Senate, which has differed with the Assembly on major programs including toxic waste and prisons.

Just this week, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) criticized the Assembly’s rejection of the governor’s beefed-up plan for handling toxic waste. The Senate leader also was described as “irritated” over Brown’s failure to consult with him before compiling his legislative agenda.

Roberti spokesman Bob Forsyth said that what concerns Brown’s Senate critics the most is “the presumption that he is speaking for all the Democrats when, in fact, he is only speaking for the Assembly Democrats.”

Brown, in a departure from the conciliatory tone of his speech, took one snide slap at the Senate leader, asserting: “Mr. Roberti has been speaking for the last 48 hours on everything under the sun that needs to be addressed--and some things that do not need to be addressed.” The remark drew chuckles from the audience.

Highlights Split

In an interview earlier this week, Brown sought to dispel any notion of animosity between Democrats in the two houses. But, in doing that, he also highlighted the split between him and Roberti.

“While I gather Mr. Roberti was irritated, I’ve not seen that from any other senator,” Brown said of Roberti’s complaints. “If I’m smart enough and clever enough to get attention, one ought to praise and copy that. I don’t resent anybody and I wouldn’t get caught being so silly as to complain about some success someone else is having.”

Brown also denied that he was trying to upstage Deukmejian, saying that Democrats were trying to “offer some leadership” in the hope that the governor would consider their agenda before deciding on his own priorities.

“Being the kind of person (Deukmejian) is, if he doesn’t set out in January knowing what the issues are he develops an inflexibility during the remainder of the year to address it,” Brown added.

Earlier in the week, Roberti held a press conference to lay out his own agenda, as did Assembly Minority Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale. However, unlike Roberti, Nolan sought and received permission to repeat his legislative priorities to the full Assembly after Brown completed his address.