Money Shouts Amid Chaos

Hundreds of corporate lobbyists prowl the marble halls of the state Capitol in Sacramento in these last days of the legislative session, doing their work behind the screen of last-minute chaos. The Senate and Assembly toil into the night to hastily dispose of hundreds of bills before midnight Saturday, when everything that’s not passed expires. All but the budget bill, still deadlocked two full months into the new fiscal year.

Deep-pocketed special interests, particularly banks and insurance companies this time around, are using their influence and campaign contributions to kill bills they don’t like and squeeze through those that boost their power or profits. Bills killed in one place, perhaps months ago, suddenly reemerge somewhere else.

One is SB 689, by Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda), which benefits an insurance company, Mercury Insurance Group, that has contributed generously to members of both houses in the last two year; its gifts include $174,000 to Thomas Calderon (D-Montebello), chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee. The bill would thwart a move by the insurance commissioner to outlaw certain discounts because they reward existing policyholders and result in higher premiums for those who don’t yet have insurance.

The Times’ Virginia Ellis reported Thursday that the once-defeated measure enjoyed a sudden revival after it was amended into a Perata bill dealing with prostate cancer. The measure then won approval in the Assembly Insurance Committee, 14 to 2, with all the yes votes cast by members who got contributions from Mercury, according to consumer advocates. Lawmakers should bury this bill again, for good.

Banks and other financial institutions declared war on a modest proposal to protect the privacy of personal financial information, one of the major consumer protection bills of the session. Common Cause reported Thursday that the foes had spent more than $5 million against SB 773, by Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), which was barely clinging to life.

The electronics industry had its own target, AB 2297, by Silicon Valley Assemblyman Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), legislation that would require Internet businesses to post their policies regarding the sale of customers’ personal financial and identification information to other companies, usually for marketing purposes. There appears to be no room for the consumer--or the ordinary voter--at the lobbyists’ end-of-session feast.

A worthy consumer-interest measure of a different sort is Sen. Jim Costa’s (D-Fresno) SB 1856, a $9-billion bond issue proposed for the November 2004 election to build a high-speed rail system in California, with the backbone line linking Los Angeles and San Francisco. This is one of the more visionary measures to come before the Legislature in years. Lawmakers should pass SB 1856, which would put the bond measure on a ballot so voters could decide the matter.