Bonds of consensus

ENCOURAGING OUR REPRESENTATIVES in Sacramento to delay consideration of tough issues is a little like giving teenagers permission to blow off their homework: It’s a dangerous precedent, and anyway, they hardly need to be told. Still, maybe a little avoidance is just what the governor and Democratic leaders in the Legislature need as Friday’s deadline approaches for placing a bond issue on the ballot in June.

If legislators don’t approve some version of a bond measure this week to help finance Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Strategic Growth Plan -- the $223-billion project that seeks to shore up the state’s crumbling infrastructure -- it won’t appear on the June ballot. That would be a setback not just for the governor, who desperately needs to show he wasn’t neutered by last year’s disastrous special election, but for the millions of Californians who stand to benefit from the kinds of improvements Schwarzenegger is advocating.

It’s already clear that the governor won’t get everything he wants -- not least because some members of his own party oppose parts of his agenda. But at this point, Democrats in the Legislature shouldn’t let good politics stand in the way of good policy. Better to let the governor have some parts of his plan now, and let voters address it in June, than to hold the whole package hostage until everybody can come to an agreement on every last detail.

As of midweek, interested parties in Sacramento said they were optimistic about meeting Friday’s deadline. (To get a bond measure on the ballot, legislative leaders need to draft a proposal and secure two-thirds approval for it in the Senate and the Assembly.) Although details remained under wraps, parties to the negotiations said they were close to agreement on how much bond money should go toward rebuilding threatened levees in Northern California, toward transportation improvements and perhaps toward education projects. If that’s truly the case, those bonds should go on the ballot in June. The state’s needs in these areas are pretty well known.

If debate about the details of the bonds drags on, it could overlap with budget discussions later in the spring, which could grind negotiations to a halt. And if the whole process seems political now -- well, it’s not going to get any less partisan as we get closer to November, when the governor will up for reelection.

There’s plenty of work yet to be done. Money for prisons probably won’t make it onto the ballot (for lack of interest, the governor complains). Republicans and Democrats continue to disagree over funding for dam construction and parks. And the debate over the breakdown of money for transportation -- freeway construction versus mass transit -- could make it difficult for that part of the bond measure to make it onto the ballot. Negotiators should keep at it until mass transit gets its fair share.

Nice as it would be to work out everything now, it’s unrealistic to expect. This is, after all, Sacramento. We may come to regret saying this, but we’ll say it anyway: Gov. Schwarzenegger, Senate President Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, it sounds like you guys are getting close. Work out what you can now, and worry about the hard stuff later. Just don’t wait until the last minute to ask us to sign your report card.