Wilson Cuts Funding for State Finance Commission : Government: The panel’s forecasts have accurately disputed governor’s estimates of revenue. Critics see the action as a political punch at Kathleen Brown.

SACRAMENTO —  Silencing a critic while taking a swipe at a likely rival for his office next year, Gov. Pete Wilson has cut the funding for a state commission that has repeatedly questioned the governor’s budget numbers.

As he signed the budget late Wednesday, Wilson used his blue pencil to cut $532,000 from the Commission on State Finance, leaving only enough cash in the coming months for the organization to phase itself out.

The veto was among scores of items the governor cut from the final budget. But while it was a small cut in the $52.1-billion budget, the action attracted interest Thursday because of its obvious political implications.

Chaired by state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, a likely Democratic challenger to Wilson in next year’s election, the commission often contradicts the governor’s staff as it issues estimates of the amount of tax revenue likely to come into state coffers.

In the fiscal year beginning Thursday, the commission already has warned that Wilson is counting on $700 million more in tax revenues than is likely to materialize.

Brown’s office reacted by accusing the governor of acting for political reasons, while the Senate considered challenging the action. But Dan Schnur, Wilson’s communications director, said the Commission on State Finance’s work duplicates efforts of the Department of Finance and the legislative analyst.

“The cacophony of fiscal analysts is unnecessary and duplicative,” Schnur said.

In 1992, the commission warned that revenue was running $6 billion short of Wilson’s estimates. In January, the commission announced that revenue would fall $2 billion short of the governor’s estimate. Each time, the commission’s numbers proved to be correct.

“The question goes to motive: Why would the governor want to silence such a respected fiscal voice?” Brown asked in a statement, then answered her own question: “Its credibility may have proved just too embarrassing.”

The bipartisan, nine-member commission includes representatives from the governor’s office, the Legislature and the controller. It was established 12 years ago when Jess Unruh was treasurer and was expanding the office’s power. At the time, Unruh used it to analyze the growing budget reserves amassed under Kathleen Brown’s brother, then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Although Treasurer Brown and the commission’s supporters characterize it as a check on the governor’s power, one of its members, Assemblyman Dean Andal (R-Stockton), reacted to the news of its demise by declaring: “I’m overjoyed.

“That commission has become nothing other than the Kathleen Brown for Governor Research Committee,” said Andal, who has been on the commission since January.

But Sen. Becky Morgan, the other Republican legislator on the commission, lauded it as the unit of state government most adept at making long-range forecasts.

Morgan agreed that the commission’s efforts duplicate work done by the governor and the legislative analyst, but added: “This is the organization that, I believe, did the best work.”

From outside the Capitol, Sue North, who is studying the state system of budgeting for the California Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan think tank studying California government, said she has been “impressed by the consistency and the accuracy of their revenue forecasts.”

“The Commission on State Finance has served a useful function and I don’t see any other entity prepared to take over that role,” North said.