Posted on 03/16/2006 9:29:41 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — A frenetic last-minute attempt to place a massive public works bond on the June ballot failed late Wednesday, handing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a key legislative defeat in his bid for re-election. The collapse of negotiations over the bond measure came just hours before an administrative deadline to place measures on the primary election ballot.
"We ran out of time," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said, after the Senate passed an urgency bill appropriating $1 billion for levee repairs from the state's reserve fund.
A partial deal had appeared possible just hours earlier after legislative leaders from both parties emerged from Schwarzenegger's office. Whatever agreement might have been struck behind close doors crumbled shortly afterward.
"While we are disappointed we did not make the June ballot, everyone knew it would be very difficult," Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said in a statement. "The governor has always said what is important is not June or November but that he and the Legislature work to rebuild California.
"At this point, it is critical that the Legislature build upon all of the work that has been accomplished thus far."
The Assembly and Senate convened Wednesday night, but to consider different issues.
The Assembly passed two bills to place measures on the June ballot: a $10.4 billion bond to build schools and upgrade universities, and a $4.15 billion bond to repair the state's fragile levee system. It also included a $9.1 billion school and university bond measure that would be placed on a ballot in 2008.
The Senate considered only the emergency levee appropriation, which passed on a 33-0 vote.
"We took the action tonight that was necessary," Perata said.
The Senate's surprise action came after Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said on the Assembly floor that the education and levee bills represented a partial victory.
"We didn't provide California a full package," he said. "(But) we're going to do the right thing by California."
While the bills passed in each house now go to the other chamber, there is no possibility of getting any measure on the June 6 primary election ballot.
Earlier in the day, the state Department of General Services heightened the urgency to settle the matter. The department's director said lawmakers needed to act by midnight Wednesday to ensure that election ballots could be mailed by the May 16 deadline.
Success with the Democrat-controlled Assembly and Senate would have given a boost to Schwarzenegger, who proposed a 10-year, $222 billion public works spending plan in January.
It relied on lawmakers and voters approving $68 billion in borrowing in a series of elections through 2014, an amount that was 41/2 times the largest single bond amount in state history. It would have been the largest bond measure in state history.
Schwarzenegger sought to rebuild the state's highway system, repair its levees, build new schools, upgrade universities, create reservoirs and expand mass transit.
His "strategic growth plan" would have been the most ambitious public works program in California since the 1960s. Getting the plan — or a part of it — through the Legislature and onto a ballot had been the centerpiece of his re-election year agenda.
Administration officials said they would continue pushing to add other public works bonds to the November ballot.
Wednesday's last-minute flurry of activity came after Schwarzenegger and lawmakers had continually pushed back a deadline that the secretary of state's office had originally set as last Friday.
fail fail fail
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Thank God a few elected officials had the good sense to Just say No!
How to proceed?
Pay-as you-Go and bonds with specifically targeted & necessary infrastructure projects only.
bttt
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