Lawmakers in Race on Bond Measures : Politics: The Legislature scurries to approve borrowing for schools and earthquake repair. But they still may have missed the deadline for a place on the June ballot.

SACRAMENTO —  With their political brinkmanship about to blow up on them, lawmakers Tuesday finally approved and sent to Gov. George Deukmejian school construction and earthquake bond measures they hope to put up for a vote in the June 5 election.

Despite all-but-unanimous approval in four votes in the Assembly and Senate on Tuesday, it was far from certain whether the Legislature acted in time for Secretary of State March Fong Eu to meet legal and printing deadlines to get the bonds on the ballot.

One of the measures is an $800-million bond proposal to provide money to construct schools, repair older ones and supply air-conditioning systems to year-round schools. It passed 70 to 0 in the Assembly and 30 to 0 in the Senate. The other measure would give state and local governments $300 million to finance earthquake repairs on public buildings and to earthquake-proof older structures. It passed 60 to 2 in the Assembly and 30 to 0 in the Senate.

Deukmejian is expected to sign both measures.

Last Friday was supposed to be the Legislature’s deadline for passing the measures. Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti said Eu told him Friday, once it was clear the Legislature would miss the deadline, that it was “categorically . . . impossible” for her to meet deadlines required to get the bond proposals before voters in June.

That position had softened somewhat on Tuesday after the Senate and Assembly actions, but there were still no guarantees from Eu’s office that the bond measures would make the ballot.

“If it can be done, it will be done. We are still trying to determine whether it is possible,” said Anthony Miller, chief deputy secretary of state.

Even if the two measures make the ballot, Miller said the Legislature’s late action will cost taxpayers a minimum of $2 million because the state will have to prepare supplemental ballot pamphlets. The official ballot pamphlet, containing more than 100 pages of material on other bond measures, initiatives and propositions, already is too far along in the publication process to include the two late measures, Miller said.

Deukmejian, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), Roberti and other legislative leaders agreed on Feb. 9 to put the school construction and earthquake bonds on the June ballot, along with $1.1 billion in other bond proposals.

The other measures were approved, but the school and earthquake bonds got bogged down in the Assembly.

Lawmakers, asserting that schools needed more money, initially attempted to kill the earthquake bond measure in order to boost the school funding proposal to $1.2 billion. After that effort failed, the fight centered on efforts by urban Democrats to amend the school bond issue in a way that would allow construction and rehabilitation contracts to be steered to firms owned by women and minority contractors.

Assembly lawmakers seemed firmly deadlocked at the end of last week, but a massive lobbying effort over the weekend by parents, school districts, teachers unions and others turned the tide, Brown said.

Late votes are nothing new on bond measures. The Legislature has been playing chicken with Eu’s deadlines for years, running right up to and then past them. Despite missed deadlines in the past, the secretary of state’s office always managed to get the measures on the ballot.

As a result, there is a feeling in the Legislature that Eu’s deadlines are soft. One key legislative source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of his job, said: “(Officials in the secretary of state’s office) said there were deadlines in the past, but they always managed. Nobody believes them anymore. That is one of the problems.”

This time, things might be different.

Miller said the problem is compounded by a ballot pamphlet that is unusually long. It already contains 15 measures and is 112 pages long. The state printing office will begin printing 11 million copies of it March 21.

The law requires that all the work must be done and the pamphlets be delivered to the Postal Service no later than May 15. Even at that, there is some doubt whether the Postal Service can deliver the 22 million pieces of mail, represented by the principal and supplemental ballot pamphlets, in time for the election June 5.

Senate President Roberti (D-Los Angeles) said the Legislature’s lawyers may ultimately have to go to court to force Eu to put the measures on the ballot if the secretary of state does not relent.