ACRAMENTO, Aug. 30 — The California Legislature hurtled toward adjournment this weekend in a flurry of lawmaking, forcing Gov. Gray Davis to decide whether to sign dozens of bills backed by liberal lobbies but sharply opposed by business interests. Posted on 08/31/2002 4:10:42 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
ACRAMENTO, Aug. 30 — The California Legislature hurtled toward adjournment this weekend in a flurry of lawmaking, forcing Gov. Gray Davis to decide whether to sign dozens of bills backed by liberal lobbies but sharply opposed by business interests.
Several of the bills — on farm labor, tenant rights, family leave, medical records, the death penalty and sacred Indian sites — will present Governor Davis, a Democrat, with uncomfortable choices between the state's powerful labor, environmental and consumer groups and the business interests that have supported his campaigns.
The Legislature is lopsidedly Democratic, and many of its members are far to the left of Mr. Davis, a self-proclaimed centrist. Seeking re-election this year, and perhaps a United States Senate or White House bid in the future, the governor has tried to keep his caucus at arm's length by vetoing or threatening to veto legislation that he considers too liberal.
Mr. Davis's chief political strategist, Garry South, said Republicans were to blame for failing to deal with the gaping budget deficit, which stands at $23.6 billion. But Mr. South expressed fury at members of the governor's own party who face little opposition in their districts and who, he said, paid no price for kowtowing to the state's liberal interests.
"Everybody wants everything now," Mr. South said. "They try to ram things down the governor's throat without any analysis or thoughtful consideration of the impact it has on the governor or the image it gives of the State of California and the governance of our state." Mr. South did not specify what bills the governor opposed, but he said Mr. Davis was well stocked with veto pens, and he planned to use them.
As legislators rushed toward recess, the state government's biggest immediate problem, the budget deficit, remained unresolved.
Mr. Davis threatened this week to call lawmakers back into a special session this fall to deal with the budget, but neither the governor nor the Legislature appeared eager to face the tax increases or program cuts that will be required to stanch the flow of red ink.
Meanwhile, the hallways of the Capitol were jammed with lobbyists hoping to push through their projects in the final days of the 2002 legislative session. Outside, farm workers rallied every day this week, hoping to pressure Mr. Davis to sign a bill that would force growers to accept government mediation to settle contract disputes with laborers.
The entire State Assembly, half of the Senate and the governor are up for re-election this fall, a deterrent to compromise and an incentive to delay. Each side blames the other for putting electoral politics ahead of the state's interests.
Republicans, a minority in both chambers, are in no mood to help Mr. Davis or to compromise on the budget, particularly if it means raising taxes. They blame overspending by the governor and Democrats for the state's budget problems.
"I don't know that we've done a lot of good this year," said State Senator James L. Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga, the Senate Republican leader. "This Legislature has failed miserably to make tough decisions about addressing the state's structural budget deficit. And the governor hasn't been involved at all."
While the budget remains stalled, several bills backed by liberals but opposed by business are headed for the governor's desk.
One bill would provide up to six weeks of partially paid leave for workers to care for a new child or a sick relative. The bill was amended to shorten the leave period and to require employees to contribute to the cost of the benefit, but it was still opposed by business.
A bill that would give California Indian tribes the right to block civic or commercial development won passage after it was amended to allow exceptions for projects deemed to be of overriding environmental or public safety importance. The tribes, which have grown in political clout because of revenues from casinos, had wanted an absolute right to block development that disturbed religious or cultural sites like burial grounds or prayer circles.
The Legislature this week approved a measure requiring the Medical Board of California to publish information about doctors' legal history, including malpractice settlements. Under current law, details of most settlements of malpractice claims are confidential. Medical malpractice insurers opposed the bill, saying that it would make doctors reluctant to settle cases out of court because the terms of the settlements would be made public.
In a complex back-room deal, trial lawyers and construction interests worked out a compromise that shields builders from some liability suits alleging faulty workmanship. Builders had complained that a proliferation of such suits had increased their liability insurance premiums and slowed construction of condominiums and low-income apartment buildings. In return, trial lawyers won an extension to two years from the current one year that plaintiffs have to file personal injury lawsuits.
Mr. Davis has not taken a public position on the matter.
Perhaps the most significant action by the Legislature this year was the passage of a bill mandating reductions in automobile emissions of carbon dioxide, the main gas that scientists say is building up in the atmosphere and causing global warming. The measure was strongly opposed by automakers, who say it will raise the cost of cars and put California out of step with the rest of the nation. Environmentalists consider it a landmark bill and will try to extend its provisions nationwide. Mr. Davis signed the measure, which takes effect in 2005, in July.
And in an issue with deep historical resonance, the Legislature was moving toward passing a measure that would require state mediation in disputes between the United Farm Workers and the state's big growers. Mr. Davis signaled that he would veto a bill passed earlier mandating binding arbitration in such conflicts, so the farm workers proposed a compromise that calls instead for mediation by state officials.
Union officials said the bill is needed because growers have not honored the terms of the 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act, championed by Cesar Chavez and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. But growers have opposed it, and backed their position with more than $1.5 million in contributions to Mr. Davis's campaigns.
Growers oppose the latest version of the measure, which appears headed for Mr. Davis's desk this weekend. "The U.F.W. has hijacked another bill and now they are trying to disguise mandatory arbitration as mediation," said Jasper Hempel, senior vice president of government affairs for the Western Growers Association. "The governor has to know this is bad public policy."
The farm workers, for their part, are demanding that Mr. Davis sign the new measure and warn that he risks alienating Latino voters and all of organized labor if he vetoes it. The union kept up the pressure this week with daily demonstrations and a 165-mile march to Sacramento and a rally with 5,000 farm workers and their supporters at the base of the Capitol on Sunday.
"When Cesar Chavez marched, it was directed at the conscience of the nation," said Marc Grossman, a union spokesman. "This is directed at one person's conscience — Mr. Davis's."
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It's all about the governor and the governor's image ... not about how their liberal policies hurt California taxpayers!
Yeah, let's worry how it affects the governor and the perception of California. The hell with the taxpayers who foot the bill for their fantasies. If they didn't want to be revenue drones, they'd live elsewhere.
This bill would be a disaster for business and development in California. The Mafia in it's hayday in Chicago or Jersey never had the power this bill would give to a handful of "Native Americans".
Anybody who wanted to build something, large or small, would be subject to a shakedown from tribes whose "verbal tradition" says that your property has spiritual significance.
NEVERTHELESS
"Mr. Davis's chief political strategist...said Republicans were to blame for failing to deal with the gaping budget deficit..."
Ah yes, the stench of Democrat duplicity and media bias wafts ever stronger over Sacramento. The Republicans have ZERO power in this state. At best — at best, mind you — they can play a stalling game with any bill that requires a supermajority to pass. But that's about it. Yet they still get blamed for the failure of the Dem Governor and Marxist-controlled legislature to effectively deal with California's problems.
Oh, and by the way, the notion that Davis is a "centrist" is laughable. He's simply not as extreme left as some of the most hard-core Marxists in the legislature — and that's only because he wants to preserve some ability to get elected to another office when his term expires. My disgust with the crowd in Sacramento knows no bounds.</p.
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