Vasconcellos Savors Unlikely Middleman Role

SACRAMENTO —  He’s the father of California’s Peace Day and prominently displays on his office wall a poster that spells out the dictionary definition of idealist.

His touchy-feely ideas about the importance of self-esteem were lampooned in “Doonesbury.” Nonconformist and liberal are adjectives that often precede his name.

Yet Assemblyman John Vasconcellos is the man in the middle of California’s seemingly perpetual budget crisis, the idealist forced to play the pragmatist as the Legislature wrestles to keep the state solvent in tough economic times.

More than any other lawmaker, Vasconcellos is the chief architect of the $53.3-billion legislative version of the state budget--a document he rather immodestly calls the “Smart Budget.”

His political enemies scoff at the term. But he can call it whatever he wants. He is at the height of his power. Vasconcellos, 61, is in his 13th year as chairman of the powerful Assembly Ways and Means Committee, and has the key spot on the Assembly-Senate conference committee on the budget.

A steady procession of Republican and Democratic lawmakers come to his office, its walls lined with pictures of idealistic personalities of the ‘60s. He has met with the governor privately over budget matters, and he wins praise from conservatives and liberals for his move to the middle over this year’s budget, though he prefers to view it as a move “forward.”

Whatever it is, he attributes his current views to the two years he spent working on a state economic prosperity plan. After meeting with executives from his Silicon Valley district, he concluded that changes in the world economy meant that manufacturing jobs are going to continue to leave the state for other countries where wages are low. Putting the state’s fiscal affairs in order is now the top priority.

“The future is up to us,” he said. “It won’t happen automatically. You can’t take it for granted.”

The constitutional deadline for the Legislature to approve a budget came and went Tuesday night. Vasconcellos worked through the day Wednesday, giving it another try.

“I’m planting a lot of seeds, trying to find out what else it takes,” Vasconcellos said.

In recent years, the so-called Big Five--the governor, the speaker, the Senate president pro tem and the Republican leaders from both houses--have intervened to forge the final budget accord, thus making the joint budget committee less relevant.

But early in the process this year, Speaker Willie Brown said he wanted to allow the budget conference committee to handle the budget. Vasconcellos may yet step aside in favor of the leadership, but he says that may not be necessary because a compromise may be close.

Vasconcellos figures he has compromised a lot already. His budget eliminates a tax break for low-income renters. He recommends a 2.7% cut in welfare payments and winces at Republican demands for deeper welfare cuts, saying “2.7 is cruel enough for me.”

“He has done a good job,” said Sen. Tim Leslie, a conservative Republican who is on the six-member budget committee. “He has proposed things that he doesn’t agree with. He’s approaching it from a standpoint of, ‘How can we get the job done?’ He deserves an A for effort.”

That’s not to say that Vasconcellos wins unanimous praise.

“You cannot a change a Vasconcellos,” said Assemblyman Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia). “He loves to do good things with other people’s money.”

Vasconcellos came to government in 1960 as a crew-cut lawyer who worked for Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, and calls the elder Brown his mentor. In the 1994 race for governor, Vasconcellos supports Brown’s daughter, Treasurer Kathleen Brown. She is, he said, his “dear friend since she was 13.”

Vasconcellos’ plan has striking similarities to what Treasurer Brown proposed. But an aide to the treasurer said the events were not orchestrated, and Vasconcellos insisted his plan was not intended to boost his friend’s budgetary credibility.

“This has nothing to do with her,” Vasconcellos said. “It’s not her budget. It’s mine. It is calculated to address California’s fiscal crisis and economic crisis and get us out of hock.”

In an environment where polish and upward mobility is valued, Vasconcellos is neither blow-dried nor ever neatly pressed. He is the butt of behind-his-back snickering over his advocacy of such things as the California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem, Personal and Social Responsibility, the focus of a “Doonesbury” series in 1987.

He speaks in a fast-paced, jargon- and acronym-laced mumble that leaves fellow lawmakers occasionally wondering what exactly he has said. But none doubt that he is in command of intricate budgetary detail, and few are brave enough to directly anger the man in charge of Ways and Means.

He has a temper and on occasion threatens to walk off the job. When voters passed an initiative in 1990 imposing term limits, he said he didn’t see “any point in killing myself for people who apparently don’t care if they have decent government.”

He scaled back his hours to a normal 40-hour week during a funk that lasted two or three months. He came out of it, he said, only after returning to therapy for a time.

“I’m here because I am here,” said Vasconcellos, who is in his 27th year in the Assembly. “I watch myself rather than predict myself,” he said, explaining why he remains in politics while longing to be on a beach in Maui.

“I have been working hard at developing my capacities and my influence, and I think they are at an all-time high. It is hard to walk out on that.”

The Budget Battle’s Sticking Points

The Legislature is considering two rival plans for balancing the state budget, one by Gov. Pete Wilson and another by an Assembly-Senate conference committee.

TOTAL SPENDING

* Wilson: General fund spending of $38.2 billion, down 6.9% from this year. Total spending of $52.1 billion, including funds raised through fees and targeted taxes.

* Conference: General fund spending of $39.6 billion. Total spending of $53.3 billion.

SALES TAX

* Wilson: Extend a temporary half-cent sales tax for six months for local law enforcement and then allow counties to vote on making it permanent.

* Conference: Extend the tax for at least two years and keep the money in the state budget to pay off the year-end deficit of $2.9 billion.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

* Wilson: Shift $2.6 billion in property tax revenue from cities, counties and special districts to the schools. The impact would be reduced by extending the sales tax six months to raise $700 million for counties; another $700 million would raised if every county made the tax permanent.

* Conference: Shift $1.2 billion from local government to the schools.

HEALTH AND WELFARE

* Wilson: Cut $164 million. Reduce welfare grants 4.2% at first and another 15% later for families with able-bodied adults. Cut aid to the aged, blind and disabled by up to 4.2%. Eliminate some health-care services for the poor.

* Conference: Increase by $118 million from this year. Reduce welfare grants and aid to the aged, blind and disabled by 2.7%. Eliminate some dental services for the poor.

KINDERGARTEN--12TH GRADE

* Wilson: Reduce spending from $4,209 per student to $4,187. Loan schools $580 million, to be repaid from guaranteed state appropriations.

* Conference: Freeze funding at $4,209 per student. Allow general revenues to grow with enrollment but cap spending on special programs so that per-student funding eventually declines toward governor’s proposed level. Loan schools $1 billion.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

* Wilson: Shift $313 million from community colleges to schools from kindergarten to Grade 12. Assume colleges will increase fees for first-time students from $10 per unit to $30. Charge about $100 per unit to students with bachelor’s degrees.

* Conference: Keep funding at current levels. Increase basic fees from $10 to $12 per unit. Maintain $50-per-unit fee for students who already have degrees. Loan community college system $237 million.

HIGHER EDUCATION

* Wilson: Cut $208 million from this year’s spending of $3.8 billion. Assume that fees will be increased by 35% at University of California campuses and 37% at Cal State schools.

* Conference: Cut $17 million. Spend $50 million more than Wilson at each university system and add $51 million to Wilson’s budget for financial aid. Assume fee increases of 22% at UC campuses and 10% at Cal State.

PRISONS

* Wilson: Increase funding $247 million from this year’s level of $3 billion.

* Conference: Reduce funding by $164 million.

RENTERS TAX CREDIT

* Wilson: Repeal renters tax credit of $60 for individuals earning less than $21,000 annually and $120 for couples.

* Conference: Suspend the credit for two years.

Missing the Deadline: A Legislative Habit

Rarely has the Legislature met the constitutional deadline of June 15 for passing the state budget. Lawmakers assess themselves no penalty for their tardiness, but state finances begin to feel effects of a budget stalemate after July 1, a situation that forced the state to pay some bills in IOUs last year.

YEAR DATE PASSED VARIANCE FROM DEADLINE * 1977-78 6/24/77 9 days late * 1978-79 7/5/78 20 days late * 1979-80 7/11/79 26 days late * 1980-81 7/16/80 31 days late * 1981-82 6/15/81 On time * 1982-83 6/25/82 10 days late * 1983-84 7/19/83 34 days late * 1984-85 6/15/84 On time * 1985-86 6/13/85 2 days early * 1986-87 6/12/86 3 days early * 1987-88 7/1/87 16 days late * 1988-89 6/30/88 15 days late * 1989-90 6/30/89 15 days late * 1990-91 7/27/90 42 days late * 1991-92 7/12/91 27 days late * 1992-93 8/29/92 74 days late * 1993-94 NA 2 days late so far