The Governor’s Hostages

It came 52 days late and failed to meet some of California’s pressing needs, but Gov. Pete Wilson has signed a $75.4-billion budget to finance state operations through June 30--though not before he vetoed a stunning $1.5 billion in spending adopted by a bipartisan vote in both houses of the Legislature.

And the budget fight is not over yet. Wilson vetoed more than $250 million in education and environmental items he says he is willing to restore if, before the session ends eight days from now, the Legislature passes programs that he wants.

Overall, the budget provides a welcome boost to education spending, financed partly from the $4.4-billion budget surplus created by a robust economy. But Wilson insisted on a major tax cut, diverting money that would have been better spent restoring some of the funds that the state took from local government in 1992 and 1993 and investing more heavily in California’s sagging infrastructure and resource base.

The Legislature did include a number of such projects in its version of the budget, but many were vetoed by the governor, including $1.5 million for plumbing at Griffith Park and $24 million for public libraries.

Democratic legislative leaders must share the blame for the heavy use of the veto pen. They had loaded up the budget with so much spending that it left a paltry emergency reserve of only about $300 million. That provided Wilson the argument he needed to justify his vetoes. The final budget now contains an ample reserve of about $1.2 billion.

The governor is holding hostage about $200 million in education funds and $50 million for environmental projects that could be restored if the Legislature does his will. One of his demands that deserves support is an end to social promotion in schools--passing students into the next grade even though they have not completed the current year’s work satisfactorily.

Wilson is holding up environmental money in exchange for a $1.3-billion water bond issue that would go on the November general election ballot. But draft versions of the water bond legislation have contained several dubious elements, and even the water industry and agriculture lobbies cannot agree on contents of the bond measure.

The Legislature should resist the governor’s strategy of holding programs hostage. It is a bad precedent that would only enhance any governor’s veto clout and upset the delicate balance of power in Sacramento.

During his signing ceremony Friday, Wilson did not mention the most urgent priority of the waning days of the legislaive session. That is agreement on a $9-billion school construction bond issue, which has passed the Assembly and has been held up in the Senate. The word is that negotiators are close to agreement. The Legislature should put approval of the school bond issue at the very top of its list over the next several days.