Democrats Win Bond Measure for Seniors’ Housing

SACRAMENTO —  Democrats, lulling Republican leaders into a momentary sense of overconfidence, jammed through the Assembly early Saturday morning a $200-million bond issue for senior citizen housing.

It was the first and only measure to break out of a six-week deadlock over a variety of rival bond proposals.

But five other stalled bond measures, including Gov. George Deukmejian’s $150-million toxic cleanup plan, received another chance for passage when lawmakers voted Saturday to extend their session for two weeks.

Supporters of the five pending bond proposals had abandoned their earlier hopes of placing the bonds on the Nov. 4 ballot. However, the advocates of bond measures that would provide money for cleaning up Mexican sewage along the international border, replacing unsafe school buses, building new school classrooms and protecting coastal property were engaged in a highly unusual last-ditch effort to put them before the voters two years hence--in 1988.

Not a Voting Matter

Unlike the other bond measures, the senior housing revenue bond issue does not have to go before the voters because it will pay for itself by collecting rents from seniors who live in the homes.

Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles), author of the housing proposal, won its approval only by using a novel maneuver that caught Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale by surprise.

According to Davis, Nolan had promised to bottle up the bond measure, which would finance construction of 5,000 housing units for senior citizens.

“When Nolan said that, it was like waving a red flag at me,” said Davis, who is the Democratic candidate for state controller in the Nov. 4 election. “The only impediment to the passage of that bill was partisan politics. The Republican leadership did not want a bill of that proportion emerging with my name on it.”

Davis calculated there was sufficient support among rank-and-file Republicans to give the measure the two-thirds, or 54-vote, majority it would need.

Davis quietly rounded up the seven GOP votes he needed. When voting began about 2 a.m., the Democrats held back two votes so that it would appear that the measure was headed for defeat.

At the last moment the two remaining Democrats voted and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) quickly announced the official vote before Nolan could react. The bill was sent to the governor on a vote of 54-12.

Later in the day, Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) attempted to revive an $800-million bond measure for school construction that had been defeated Friday. The bill was part of the financing package for a $5-billion, five-year school building program that was approved Friday by both houses.

But on a 20-5 vote, the Senate again blocked the school bond measure, arguing that it was too early to begin approving bond measures for a ballot that is two years away. It needed 27 favorable votes.

Similar Resistance

Other measures facing similar resistance included $100 million for the replacement of school buses, $100 million to clean up sewage spilling across the border from Mexico and $100 million to preserve coastal land.

Meanwhile, the Assembly continued to hold up a $150-million bond measure for toxic cleanup sought by Deukmejian and a $100-million proposal to build libraries throughout the state.

Democrats and Deukmejian had agreed on a package in July that would have put all except the school construction measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.

But that deal fell apart when Assembly Republicans refused to go along with the library measure.

Already, the Legislature and Deukmejian have placed a record $1.8 billion in bonds on the Nov. 4 ballot, including another $800-million measure to build school classrooms, $500 million to build prisons, $400 million to build college facilities and $100 million to protect drinking water supplies.