Speaker Wants State to Pay for Secession Study

Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa announced Friday that he will fight to obtain funding for a study of the San Fernando Valley’s proposed secession from Los Angeles as part of next year’s state budget--a move that could trigger a political showdown in Sacramento.

Joined by a bipartisan group of Valley-area lawmakers and secession boosters in Van Nuys, Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), a possible mayoral candidate in 2001, stressed that he opposes the efforts to break up the city.

But, he said, the state has a responsibility to pay for most of the costs of studying Valley secession because it was the Legislature that required such an analysis before the public could vote on the issue. Furthermore, he said, a secession study is too costly for most citizens to afford, preventing all but the wealthy from pursuing municipal divorce unless government foots the bill.

To that end, Villaraigosa said he will seek to add $1.84 million to the state budget for an 80% share of the secession study, which some estimate will cost $2.3 million--optimistic, considering that some estimates have ranged as high as $8 million. That would leave the city, county and Valley VOTE, the group behind the breakup movement, to decide how to split the remainder of the tab.

“I do not support secession. I think it will divide people instead of bringing them together,” Villaraigosa said. “However, I do support a study. I want us to have an informed debate about what kind of city we want to live in. I think what we need to do is have the facts.”

For secession to be placed on the ballot, the study, a complex and politically charged analysis of the consequences of deconstructing Los Angeles, must find that secession can occur without hurting the rest of the city economically. Valley secession would require a majority vote of the Valley, as well as the entire city. It is not likely to go before voters until 2002, if it does at all.

“This is leadership you are seeing here,” said Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close. “Leadership that does not always agree with the issue of San Fernando Valley secession, but that understands we have a right to study it.”

The decision to seek the money as part of the budget instead of through special legislation is no coincidence. It would allow breakup advocates to avoid an uphill fight in the state Senate, where numerous lawmakers, including Senate Leader John Burton (D-San Francisco), have expressed opposition to funding a study.

Special legislation would have to clear the Senate Committee on Local Government, whose chairman, Sen. Richard K. Rainey (R-Walnut Creek) has come out against funding the study, and whose members include Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), one of secession’s most outspoken foes.

Although the Senate and Gov. Gray Davis will still have to approve the budget request for secession funding, it will come as part of a larger trailer bill that will include dozens of projects throughout the state, dramatically increasing its chance of success.

“It becomes much harder to pick it apart,” said Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), who will assist the effort along with Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar). “This is going to go in [the budget] with the swimming pool for San Jose and the youth center for San Diego.”

Nevertheless, even supporters predict a difficult road ahead.

Alarcon, who was elected to the Senate last year after serving on the City Council, said there is no question that the Valley has historically failed to receive its rightful share of government services compared to the rest of Los Angeles.

He said a secession study would go a long way toward settling that, and many other long-standing disputes about the way the city is run. But he is not so sure his Senate colleagues will agree.

“It’s going to be a challenge on the Senate side,” Alarcon said. “The conversations I have had with colleagues in the Senate thus far have not been fruitful.”

Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante said Friday that the governor has not taken a position on Valley secession and will need to review the study funding issue before taking sides. “I don’t believe the governor has been consulted on this,” Bustamante said.

Villaraigosa predicted that Burton and other opponents will give ground once he explains his determination to have secession funding included in the budget.

“There are people that do not support secession that think the best way to stop it is not to fund this,” he said. “I think that is wrong. . . . I will not hold the budget hostage. What I will do is make [secession funding] a priority.”