O.C. to Mortgage Its Way Out : Legislature: Special committee’s aid package is quickly attacked by local lawmakers. They say they’ll support new version today, but time is drawing short.
SACRAMENTO — With the clock ticking on the legislative year, a special committee of state lawmakers hammered out a trio of measures early Wednesday to help Orange County recover from bankruptcy, but the package quickly came under fire from the county’s own delegation in the Capitol.
Bucking a midnight deadline, a conference committee with representatives from the Assembly and Senate voted about 12:30 a.m. to send to the floor of both houses a slate of bills that would let the county tap transit taxes and other funds to finance a recovery.
But by morning, the county’s legislative delegation was criticizing the conference committee bills, saying they were doomed because of a link to bailout legislation for fiscally strapped Los Angeles County that is threatened with a veto by Gov. Pete Wilson.
Lawmakers also said the bills contained critical technical errors that could cause problems for the county’s recovery, a charge that conference committee leaders flatly rejected.
“The worst part about those bills is they’ll never be signed by the governor,†said state Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange). “It’s an exercise in futility.â€
Lewis and other county lawmakers said they plan to throw their support behind legislation, scheduled to be introduced today by state Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside), that captures the core proposals of the county’s plan but remedies problems they perceive in the conference committee bills.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Newport Beach) said he plans to launch a procedural challenge today against the conference committee bills on the floor of the Senate.
Johnson contends the conference committee violated legislative rules by failing to deliver the bills before midnight Tuesday, a deadline that had to be met for the measures to go for a final vote on the floor of both houses by the close of session Friday. Johnson contends the bills now require a two-thirds vote of both houses to be heard.
“Clearly the rules were violated,†Lewis said. “Clearly the proper procedure is to not let that conference committee report proceed.â€
Members of the conference committee, however, rejected the criticism and said they expected the bills to survive any procedural challenge.
“Anyone who tries to derail this so late in the process is putting their own political games ahead of the needs of their own constituents,†said Craig Reynolds, chief of staff for state Sen. Lucy Killea (I-San Diego), who shepherded the conference committee.
“There are 5,000 ways to blow this thing up. Anything they do--whether it be introducing another bill, holding a press conference or complaining to the press--are transparent attempts to blow up the thing for their own ego’s benefit,†Reynolds said.
As the war of words raged, Orange County officials adopted a neutral stance, saying they’ll be happy with any bill that delivers the legislation they need this year. And, despite a scenario that was quickly beginning to resemble a high-stakes game of chicken, at least one county official saw room for optimism.
“I think you get to a point this time of year where things are hanging by a thread. But then they somehow get worked out after midnight on the last day,†said Supervisor Marian Bergeson, a former state lawmaker who has witnessed plenty of close-of-session shenanigans.
Bergeson suggested that the county’s best chances could rest with the legislation Craven and the county’s Sacramento delegation is expected to introduce today. “I think the leadership of the delegation will inevitably shepherd this through for us,†Bergeson said.
Orange County declared bankruptcy late last year after discovering that the county-run investment pool had lost nearly $1.7 billion. In the nine months since, the county has struggled to come up with a way to repay its bondholders and creditors and compensate the cities, schools and special districts for the losses to their investment pool accounts.
After several false starts, the county and the investment pool participants finally reached an agreement last week on the latest recovery plan.
The spotlight then shifted to the Legislature, which needs to push through a measure giving the county authority to divert certain funds and take other actions needed for the plan to be realized.
Ultimately, the task of crafting the legislation fell to the conference committee, which didn’t even begin debate on the measures until 11:45 p.m. Tuesday--only 15 minutes before the midnight deadline for reporting back measures to the final days of the Legislature.
The centerpiece of the plan shifts $38 million in transit tax revenue from the Orange County Transportation Authority to county government. The legislation authorizes the county to give back $23 million in gas tax money to OCTA to help ease its losses. Another $12 million a year would be tapped from the county’s flood control district, parks, and redevelopment funds. The plan also would authorize a state trustee appointed by the governor if the county doesn’t pull out of bankruptcy by next May.
While those provisions will be mirrored in the legislation Craven plans to introduce today, numerous technical changes will be made.
“It’s not surprising that a technical bill that has taken a year to produce cannot be rewritten in the dead of night without creating problems,†said Scott Johnson, Craven’s chief of staff.
Johnson said the bills emerging from the conference committee cannot be amended, thus forcing the delegation to turn to another bill to produce “an appropriately written documentâ€--and try to sever the link to Los Angeles County’s bill. He called the efforts by Los Angeles County lawmakers to latch onto Orange County legislative “extortion.â€
Los Angeles County lawmakers are seeking a shift of $125 million in Metropolitan Transit Authority funds this year, and more in future years, to help rescue the county’s financially ailing health services.
The conference committee agreed to join the Los Angeles County transit fund proposal with the Orange County measures so that the two plans either succeed or fail together as they wend their way through the Legislature.
But Wilson has threatened to veto bills that are thus intertwined unless substantial changes are made to the Los Angeles County proposals.
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