Los Angeles Times - September 12, 2007
Patrick McGreevy and Nancy Vogel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers, patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com, nancy.vogel@latimes.com

The controversial last-minute act at the urging of the company came at the end of a legislative session in which so little progress was made on major policy issues that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his executive authority Tuesday to call lawmakers back to work later this month.

They will return for special legislative sessions, which technically began Tuesday, on healthcare reform and water issues. Those key parts of the governor's agenda remained unresolved as lawmakers prepared to end deliberations for the year.

But in the final hours of their regular session, lawmakers passed other measures, including the Anschutz bill. Approved over objections from advocates of affordable housing, it would make a company project near Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles eligible to compete for some of the $2.8 billion in bond money voters approved for such housing last year.

The bill, AB 1053 by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), was among a handful of measures that changed substantially in recent days. Watchdog groups are highly critical of such bills -- known as "jam jobs" -- because they do not go through the normal vetting process of months of public hearings. The bill was amended in the Senate last week.

"Nobody has taken a look at the policy implications of this yet," said Julie Snyder, policy director of the nonprofit group Housing California. Another housing group argued that an entertainment conglomerate is not an appropriate recipient of public housing funds.

Anschutz has donated $50,000 to the campaign for a ballot measure, championed by the Democrats who control the Legislature, that would extend term limits of sitting lawmakers.

The housing bill would make the Figueroa corridor downtown a "business improvement district," eligible for state public works funds to pay for street improvements, sidewalks, parks and transit facilities. Anschutz plans numerous large residential, commercial and entertainment developments in the corridor.

The company said in a statement submitted to the Legislature that using bond money for infrastructure improvements at the site would make it "such a desirable 'infill area' that housing developers will want to build housing and people will want to live along its route."

Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) said the company project must include affordable housing for it to be eligible for any bond money, and a business improvement district or the city must apply for the money.

"We are not giving them the money," he said. "They have to apply for it."

Lawmakers adjourned shortly after 3 a.m., several days ahead of schedule, in honor of the Jewish new year. But they are expected to return to Sacramento next week to deal with water and healthcare.

Schwarzenegger said at a news conference that those issues are "too important to walk away from simply because of a date on the legislative calendar . We owe it to the people of California to finish the job we have started."

Another of the governor's priorities, changing how California draws its voting districts, will not be addressed in the special sessions. Schwarzenegger abandoned plans to include the issue after legislative leaders indicated there was little hope of agreement on the matter.

That development could undermine the February ballot measure to revamp California's term limits. Schwarzenegger has repeatedly said he would prefer that a term limits change be paired with redistricting reform.

Progress on all the issues on Schwarzenegger's agenda stalled during the summer, as a 51-day budget stalemate brought business at the Capitol to a standstill. On Monday, lawmakers passed a Democratic plan to overhaul the state's healthcare system, but Schwarzenegger said he would veto it.

The Democratic bill would require employers to spend the equivalent of 7.5% of their payroll on healthcare, an amount the governor says is too high, or pay into a state fund through which workers could buy insurance. Nunez said a compromise on healthcare would probably have been reached by now if not for the budget delay.

"I think we would have been in a very different situation," he said at a news conference Tuesday. Nunez and Senate leader Don Perata (D-Oakland) welcomed news of the special sessions. Republicans had mixed reactions.

"I don't think healthcare is going to get done," said Dick Ackerman of Irvine, leader of the Senate's minority Republicans. "There are too many unanswered questions out there."

The governor could ultimately work with Democrats to push through a healthcare plan without any Republican votes. But voters would probably have to approve any new levies that would pay for such a plan.

The Legislature will also attempt to tackle California's perennial water troubles. Those problems have been compounded lately by drought and a federal court decision intended to protect native fish that could cost Southern California as much as a third of the water it gets from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The governor and lawmakers hope to negotiate a bond package for the February ballot to finance more waterworks, perhaps including new reservoirs and a canal to draw Sacramento River water more directly to the pumps that send water to Southern California.

Schwarzenegger and many other Republicans have insisted that the state needs new reservoirs, and have floated plans to borrow several billion dollars to build them. Democrats say water conservation and groundwater storage are more cost-effective ways to stretch supply.

On Tuesday night, as lawmakers finished their work, the Anschutz proposal was not the only last-minute measure lawmakers considered. There was also a bid by prison guards to get a pay hike, AB 1662. When Perata adjourned, senators were discussing the bill in committee, so it never reached a vote.

Increases are typically granted through collective-bargaining negotiations with the administration. But those discussions have stalled, so the union was furiously lobbying lawmakers to take the matter into their own hands and grant two raises totaling nearly 10%.

"Is this a horrible policy bill to bring to the floor? Yes," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City). But she added, "What about the people that are in Calipatria [State Prison] that have to wear the full bulletproof jumpsuit in 120 degrees? What about the one guard that is watching 250 people in a yard?" Schwarzenegger was critical of the effort, calling it wrong for the union to go "around the process, directly to the legislators, and during the dark of night."

Meanwhile, advocates for low-income Californians unsuccessfully resisted a bill by Nunez that would raise $200 million a year to promote alternative fuels through new fees on cars and boats. They said the bill, AB 118, does not include proper oversight of the state money. It passed the Senate narrowly and was given final approval in the Assembly.

One bill that had made it to the governor's desk by Tuesday evening, SB 406, is intended to reduce the dropout rate in high schools by prohibiting students from obtaining work permits unless they maintain at least a 2.0 or "C'' grade average and an attendance rate of at least 80%.

Lawmakers also sent the governor a bill that would increase benefits for workers suffering from job-related permanent disabilities. Proponents say the measure, SB 936, is needed to raise disability payments that are some of the lowest in the nation.

Most California employers oppose the hike, saying it represents a "rollback" of Schwarzenegger's 2004 overhaul of the state's once-costly workers' compensation insurance system. The governor has not taken a public stance on the bill but has said repeatedly that he would veto any measure he believed would raise insurance costs for businesses.

The production of industrial hemp would be legalized under another bill sent to the governor. AB 684 would authorize a five-year pilot program in four counties, with controls to make sure the plants were not used to produce marijuana.

Other bills reaching the governor's desk would ban smoking in cars occupied by children -- SB 7 -- and allow illegal immigrants to receive financial aid for college under certain conditions, such as having graduated from a California high school. Republicans called that bill, SB 1, wrongheaded.

"We have limited resources," said Assemblyman Chuck Devore (R-Irvine), "and they should be targeted at people who are here legally."

Also Tuesday, the governor signed legislation that would allow the wives or partners of HIV-positive men to conceive so long as "sperm-washing" steps were taken to minimize the infection risk to mother and child. The measure, SB 443 by Sen. Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), changes a law banning the transfer of bodily fluids from HIV-positive donors.

Schwarzenegger also signed SB 353 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), which allows judges writing domestic violence restraining orders to forbid alleged abusers to have contact with family pets.

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Times staff writers Evan Halper, Marc Lifsher and Michael Rothfeld contributed to this report.

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