GOP Blocks Wilson’s School Bond Plan

SACRAMENTO — Assembly Republicans on Thursday blocked GOP Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to require only a simple majority, rather than a two-thirds vote of the electorate, to approve bond issues to build local schools and jails.

Opposing GOP members in the Assembly argued that the proposal, advanced by the governor in his 1991 State of the State message to the Legislature, would mean increased taxes that their constituents would have to pay to retire the bonds.

Legislation by Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) received a 44-29 lower-housevote, but a two-thirds majority of 54 votes was required for passage. Forty-three Democratsand one Republican voted yes; 29 GOP members voted no.

The defeat means that the proposal probably will not appear on the June primary election ballot for voter consideration.

O’Connell said many local school bond issues fail to pass, even if they receive more than a majority vote, because they cannot achieve the necessary two-thirds majority.

“To keep up with our current school enrollment growth of 200,000 new pupils per year,” the Southern California lawmaker said, “we must build about 20 classrooms a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, for most of the next decade.”

O’Connell served notice that he will seek reconsideration of his rejected measure to try to get it on the November ballot.

After the vote, a spokesman for the governor said that Wilson, who was on an official visit to Mexico, was “obviously disappointed” with the outcome.

The statement added that the governor “remains committed to the need to alleviate classroom over crowding and improve old schools badly in need of repair.”

Assemblyman Stan Statham (R-Oak Run), the only Republican to vote with O’Connell, said he did so because “I’m tired of seeing schools in my district that look like mobile homes because that, in fact, is what they are.”

Asked why more GOP members did not vote for the measure, Assembly Republican leader Bill Jones of Fresno said they were holding out for “additional school bond reforms.”

O’Connell replied that Wilson’s support for reducing the school bond vote requirement was “unconditional” and not tied to any other “reforms.” Asked why more Republicans failed to along with him, he said, “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the governor.”

O’Connell labeled the current two-thirds bond vote requirement “undemocratic,” adding, “I have never been able to understand why it takes two yes votes to offset one no vote.”

An opponent and no vote, Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) said, “The only right of the taxpayer that the governor wants to protect is the right to pay more taxes.”

McClintock predicted that an “astronomical” increase in the number of local school construction bond issues would appear on the ballot if the vote requirement were reduced to a simple majority.