GOP Caucus Seeks to Solve Budget Woes : Politics: Lawmakers’ opposition to tax hikes makes a workable plan unlikely. Some Assembly members who want spending cuts will not attend the meeting.

SACRAMENTO —  Assembly Republicans will venture into the Sierra foothills on an overnight retreat today in an effort to devise a plan for erasing the state’s red ink with only a minimum of tax increases.

So far, in the face of a $12.6-billion shortage, this group has advanced no solutions, but has threatened to block the plans put forward by everyone else in the budget-making arena.

Each of these plans--proposed by Assembly Democrats, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and Senate members of both parties--includes a variety of tax increases, ranging from a sales tax hike to new levies on services to extending the sales tax to newspapers and candy.

Because of the refusal of Assembly Republicans to budge from their anti-tax stance, doubts persist as to whether a detailed plan will emerge this week from the meeting in Grass Valley, 55 miles northeast of the capital.

Republican consensus cracked even before the unity meeting. Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), who heads an ultraconservative faction within the Assembly GOP caucus, has counted himself out of the gathering. He said he has previous commitments. At least four other Assembly Republicans who are philosophically allied with McClintock also said they would not attend. All subscribe to the bottom-line philosophy: Don’t raise taxes; cut government spending.

A Wilson aide said the governor, who will officially unveil his latest budget plan today, will “drop by” the Grass Valley meeting Friday. Wilson is said to be strongly considering a sales tax increase as the key to solving the budget deficit and is expected to try to sell his plan to the reluctant Republicans. So far, they appear unreceptive. Asked whether he favored the Wilson plan for a sales tax increase, Republican Assemblyman John R. Lewis of Orange, an ardent member of the faction, said: “I’m against it, but thank you for asking.”

Without help from the Assembly GOP, the budget bill cannot garner the two-thirds votes of both houses needed to pass in the Legislature. Democratic majorities cannot do it alone.

Even with solid Democratic support, six to eight Assembly Republican votes will be needed to approve the budget, depending on the outcome of two coming special elections. So far, the Assembly’s anti-tax faction numbers about 10, but its position has not been openly challenged by the other 22 Republicans.

Assembly GOP Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra confirmed in an interview that the budget problem will be on the agenda when the Republican representatives gather--at their own expense--at a rustic state park. Otis Turner, a Johnson aide, said the Republicans are leaving Sacramento to “get away from the usual distractions of the Capitol.”

Johnson said the group has “a lot of ideas. But I don’t know if we will come out with a plan,” he said. “The idea of the retreat is to talk about the budget and a lot of other things, too, such as reapportionment.”

Johnson scoffed at the solutions presented by Democrats. “The Democrats don’t have a budget plan,” he said. “They just want to raise taxes. There are no real cuts or basic structural reforms. . . . We’re not going to talk about any potential revenue enhancements until the Democrats seriously start talking about reforms that will result in real savings, not only for the short term but for the long term.”

Translation: Republicans want program cuts that are deeper and longer lasting than those suggested by Democrats.

For example, they say a proposal by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) for a near-10% cut in all state services except education is insufficient.

Most budget experts agree that the severity of the problem could lead to a long summer of hot budget debate in Sacramento. Perhaps portending continued Republican resistance, Johnson quipped: “It could be a long, cold winter as well.”

The 10-member McClintock group has been arguing its case and butting heads with more moderate Republicans for several months. In January, the group sent Wilson a letter containing its no-tax message and urging him to impose a state spending freeze to permit a careful reevaluation of state spending priorities.

The letter said: “Our problems are not the fault of the taxpayers for not paying enough taxes--they are the fault of rampant waste, mismanagement and carelessness in the administration of the vast public resources consumed by government.”

Lower house GOP members who side with McClintock are Gil Ferguson of Newport Beach, Cathie Wright of Simi Valley, Nolan Frizzelle of Fountain Valley, Gerald N. Felando of San Pedro, Lewis of Orange, Doris Allen of Cypress, Andrea Seastrand of Salinas, David Knowles of Sacramento and Trice Harvey of Bakersfield. In the Senate, Don Rogers of Bakersfield follows a similar philosophy.