Pubdate: Wed, 16 June 1999
Source: Bakersfield Californian (CA) 
Copyright: 1999, The Bakersfield Californian.  
Contact:  
Website: http://www.bakersfield.com/ 
Author: Vic Pollard, Californian Sacramento Bureau, DEAL STRUCK FOR SECOND DELANO PRISON

SACRAMENTO - A tentative agreement between Gov. Gray Davis and legislative
leaders to build a second prison in Delano cleared the way for easy Senate
approval of the state budget Tuesday and put added pressure on the Assembly
to act by the midnight constitutional deadline.

But the $81.7 billion spending plan stalled on an initial Assembly vote as
Republicans held out for a bigger tax cut than the budget's $250 million
reduction in vehicle license fees.

The Senate approved the budget by an overwhelming vote of 36-3, with just
three anti-abortion Republicans voting no in protest of Medi-Cal abortion
funding. Other Senate Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the
spending plan.

The budget then went to the Assembly where Republicans huddled behind closed
doors for more than three hours  before emerging to vote as a block against
it shortly before 10 p.m.

It stalled on party-line vote of 48-31, with Green Party Assemblywoman Audie
Bockof Oakland joining the 47  Democrats in support. The roll was left open
as negotiations apparently continued.

Approval by midnight would have met the June 15 constitutional deadline for
budget adoption for the first time since 1986. There are no consequences for
missing the adoption deadline and it has been routinely ignored for more
than a decade. The government often also missed the June 30 date for signing
by the governor, leaving it without authority to spend money for a time.

The proposed budget would cut vehicle license fees by $250 million and spend
more money on welfare recipients, beginning teachers' salaries and aid to
local government. The budget writing was made easier by the recent
realization that revenues would be about $4.3 billion higher than estimated
six months ago because of the booming economy.

The apparent agreement on the Delano prison ended a standoff between the
moderate Democratic governor and  liberal Democratic leaders in the Legislature.

Davis wanted to set aside $335 million of the biggest state budget surplus
in many years to build the prison with cash. Senate President pro tempore
John Burton, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa and other liberals
opposed any more prison construction without reforms that would put fewer
drug and alcohol offenders and  non-violent parole violators behind bars.

The compromise calls for legislation that would provide $24 million in the
coming fiscal year to buy land and design the prison, Burton told reporters.
It would also authorize the state to build the prison with lease-purchase
bonds rather than cash.

In exchange for the go-ahead on the prison, Burton said, Davis agreed to
provide funding for drug and alcohol treatment facilities for 3,000
additional prisoners over the next few years as well as additional parole
agents to help prevent parolees from committing non-violent "technical"
parole violations that send many of them back to prison.

"The whole thing is an anti-recidivism deal," Burton said.

Assemblyman Dean Florez, D-Shafter, one of the most enthusiastic backers of
the prison, said he was relieved at the agreement.

"I had mentioned to the Speaker and others that I was not prepared to vote
for this budget without a prison," Florez said. The facility would be
located in his district, and the prison compromise may be amended into one
of his bills.

The prison was one of three demands made by Assembly Republicans. They also
wanted a bigger tax cut and more state aid for local government.

In the Assembly debate, Republican Leader Scott Baugh opposed the spending
plan with a plea for a deeper tax cut.

"We grow government at the expense of the hard-working families, the
taxpayers who work to feed and cloth their children, their families, to put
food on the table," Baugh said. "This Legislature cannot find it in its
heart to return that money to the families who earned it."

The budget called $250 million to speed up by a year a second cut in the
vehicle license fee that was not  scheduled to go into effect until Jan. 1,
2001.

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