Valley Lawmakers Bless, Blast Wilson’s Speech

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. Pete Wilson’s State of the State speech, emphasizing sweeping reforms in welfare and education, brought reactions ranging from applause to scorn from San Fernando Valley lawmakers Monday night.

But most of them adopted a wait-and-see stance to an address that was short on specifics and therefore decidedly more tame than Wilson has delivered in the past.

“The most significant thing . . . was that the whole tenor of his address was much more moderate than in the past,” state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) said.

Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) noticed how many typically Democratic issues--education, student aid and infant health care--were included in Wilson’s annual address to a joint session of the Legislature.

“We’ll find out whether there’s meat on the bones soon enough,” said Hertzberg.

But even without specifics, some Valley Democrats objected to the tenor of Wilson’s remarks on welfare reform, which characterized unemployed aid recipients as “sitting on a couch collecting welfare.”

Wilson called for no welfare payments to women who will not identify their child’s father and an immediate lifetime welfare ban for anyone caught cheating the system.

His full welfare reform proposal, due Thursday, will suggest new welfare recipients be allotted one year of benefits before being cut off from aid, a spokesman said.

“It’s going to be really Draconian,” said Assemblyman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) whose district includes the West Valley. “We’ll have a lot of people hungry on the streets.”

State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) noted that the speech was long on references to teenage moms, but failed to consider what he thinks is the most serious threat to Los Angeles County--eliminating benefits to the elderly.

“He’s letting welfare cuts happen to the elderly, blind and disabled,” Hayden said, estimating that 100,00 such people live in Los Angeles.

“It’s a kiss-granny-goodbye kind of approach,” Hayden said.

GOP Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), however, applauded the governor’s approach to welfare reform.

“I think one year is more than enough time for someone who is serious about seeking work to seek it and find it,” McClintock said.

Requiring mothers seeking welfare payments to establish paternity of their children is a “fine idea,” McClintock said.

“In the past we’ve provided teenagers with legal majority and paid them well if they have a child out of wedlock, promise not to marry the father and promise not to get a job,’ McClintock said.

McClintock also supports Wilson’s call to cut corporate and banking taxes 10%, after a 5% cut last year, but thinks it should be paired with a tax cut for working families.

“If we can’t reduce the tax burden on working families in an expanding economy, can we ever do so when the economy is not up?” he said.

Democrats were not pleased with Wilson’s renewed attempt to cut corporate taxes, especially in light of California’s bullish economic outlook.

“He dragged out another tax cut, but only for banks and corporations,” Kuehl said. “Any tax cut hurts education funding.”

Wilson made education improvements a centerpiece of his speech, calling for completion of last year’s start on cutting class size in primary grades.

He also promised not to raise tuition at state colleges and universities for the second year, while calling for expanded student aid.

The vow to hold the line on tuition brought the governor his only applause from the Democratic side of the chambers.

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Freshman Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles), a teacher and teacher’s union official, expressed interest in joining in a bipartisan effort on education reform.

“I want to be involved . . . we must find the funding that results in lasting change,” Wildman said. But he added: “We can’t be naive about how difficult a job this is going to be.”

Schiff and Hertzberg were also hopeful of a bipartisan effort to revamp the juvenile justice system. Reforming the juvenile justice system was the one public safety issue Wilson included in his speech.

Schiff is head of a subcommittee on juvenile justice, while Hertzberg is chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

“I’m glad he’s talking about juvenile justice. That’s an area important to me,” Hertzberg said.