Sat, January 14, 2006

During Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's annual State of the State speech to a joint session of the state Legislature, he apologized for fall's special election and proposed the largest bond package in California history. Part of an overall infrastructure spending package of $222 billion, the bond package calls for $68 billion for projects such as road improvement, levee repair, new school construction and water development.

The governor should get credit for apologizing for the disastrous special election -- and for recognizing that Pat Brown's legacy is based on measures similar to what the governor proposed last week. As governor during the 1960s, Brown expanded California's infrastructure and economic capacity by building the highways, universities and water systems we rely on today.

While the governor learned from the special election that he will not be successful if he governs from a narrow and partisan viewpoint, the success of his new proposals rests on whether he learned two other lessons -- one from Pat Brown and one from fall's debacle.

First, if you're going to be Pat Brown, be the whole Pat Brown. Don't pick and choose from the lessons of the Brown era.

Brown supported public improvements that included "pay as you go" budgeting and bonds that were backed by new sources of revenue, as opposed to further burdening the state's credit, and our future, through general obligation bonds.

Second, voters told the Legislature and the governor last fall that they want us to ratchet down the rhetoric and theatrics and work together to solve California's problems. Of concern now is the fact that the governor's bond proposal was prepared with little legislative consultation. So, while the governor's proposal includes very important projects, it misses the mark in several key areas as the state begins to run out of voter-approved bond funding for libraries, parks and housing.

Locally, I have seen the value of bond spending with new, affordable multi-family housing projects in the Salinas Valley, the new library in Castroville and state support for parks on the Central Coast.

What we need now is to have genuine consultation and discussion over these proposals. With almost $5 billion in structural deficit in the state budget, it's hard to imagine loading into the budget billions of dollars in interest costs without addressing the deficit.

To be successful as a strategy to invest in California's future, the governor's bond package will have to be less of a burden on the state general fund, will have to be broadened to continue successful bond programs, and probably will have to be a smaller overall size.

If the governor is willing to be realistic, flexible and negotiate, I and others in the Legislature are more than willing to meet him halfway.

Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, is chair of the Assembly Budget Committee and was recently named by Assembly Speaker Nunez to the Infrastructure Bond Conference Committee, which will consider bond legislation from the Assembly, Senate and governor before bringing infrastructure ballot measures to the voters.