Senate Passes Child Health Care Bill

SACRAMENTO — The state Senate passed the first part of a package of bills aimed at providing health coverage to 600,000 children of poor families Thursday, while a key Senate committee approved what opponents call a significant weakening of the state Endangered Species Act.

The Senate and Assembly were expected to vote on the final health care package today, along with scores of other measures, including the revision of state protections for such endangered species as the Chinook salmon, kit fox and Swainson’s hawk.

With the Legislature due to end its work for the year tonight, lawmakers met late into Thursday, in the longshot hope of reaching an accord on a tax cut package that could total $712 million.

Prospects seemed better for a proposed 5% tuition cut at the University of California and California State University systems.

The fee cut proposal emerged when Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga) amended a bill by Assemblywoman Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego), who welcomed the move. The measure also would freeze fees at the lower rate for at least three years.

Noting that university fees have more than doubled in the 1990s, Brulte added: “It just seems to me we ought to be reducing the fees now that we’re out of the recession and we have a little extra money.”

The state would make up the loss from the fee reductions by allocating the university systems $40 million more in next year’s budget.

In another education matter, a conference committee approved a plan pushed hard by Gov. Pete Wilson to give a statewide test to public school students in grades 2 through 11. The measure will go to the Legislature today, but a fight is expected in the Assembly.

Wilson hopes that the test, which would be given in the spring, will let parents know how California schools fare when compared nationally. In exchange for the test’s approval, Wilson would release more than $200 million for a variety of projects he had vetoed from the 1997-98 state budget. Wilson has been withholding the money until lawmakers agree to require the test.

Some Democrats continue to oppose the measure, arguing that the test will not accurately reflect the knowledge of non-English speakers, and that it won’t match California’s curriculum.

The Senate, meanwhile, easily approved legislation appropriating a relatively small sum--less than $5 million--to get the new child health care program underway. The full package is expected to come to a vote in both houses today.

If approved, the program would cost an estimated $479 million in its first full year, including $170 million from the state and the rest from the federal government. It would be the first significant expansion of state-financed health care in decades.

Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), an author of the health care measure, called the package “a unique opportunity to provide health coverage for hundreds of thousands of children who now have none.”

The program would be aimed at low-income families in which parents have jobs that do not provide health coverage. A family of four with an annual income of $32,000 would pay $27 a month in premiums and $5 for visits to doctors and prescriptions. Families with lower incomes would pay as little as $14 in monthly premiums.

The measure has the support of some Republican lawmakers and Wilson, in part because it will rely heavily on private insurance companies to provide the coverage.

However, some conservatives intend to try to block the program, contending that it will cost too much and could prompt employers to drop group insurance, knowing their workers would qualify for government-financed health care.

In other legislative action, the Senate Natural Resources Committee approved a sweeping rewrite of California’s Endangered Species Act, despite passionate opposition from Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles).

The bill by Sen. Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton) gives the state Department of Fish and Game authority to issue permits for the “taking,” or killing, of endangered species as a consequence of development.

Hayden, the committee’s chairman, warned that the bill would hasten the demise of the state’s most vulnerable species, and called Thursday “the saddest day for the environment in the 14 years I’ve been here.”

Then, as he made some final comments before the vote, he was overcome with emotion and forced to pause.

“I’m not one who believes that animals are more important than people or any of that,” continued Hayden, who has been the Legislature’s most uncompromising defender of endangered species. “It’s just that in the catalog of environmental bills, this is the only one that can’t be fixed . . . because extermination of a species is irreversible.”

Hayden’s speech brought utter silence to the crowded hearing room, but it failed to sway his committee colleagues. Not a single one--not even Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford), normally a solid Hayden ally--sided with him against the bill.

When the roll call vote was taken, it passed 8-1, with Hayden tersely declaring “never” instead of the ordinary “no” when his name was called.

Under the bill, developers would be allowed to kill endangered species if they make up for any species destruction to an extent roughly equal to the harm they cause. Current law has no firm standard governing what a developer must do.

Today the bill moves to the Senate floor, where it is all but certain to win final approval. Wilson is reportedly eager to sign it.

With the Legislature ready to leave town until January, Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) shuttled between Wilson’s office and Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) trying to pull together a tax cut deal.

In exchange for Democratic agreement on the tax cut, Wilson and Republicans would agree to a pay raise of about 3% for state employees and a plan to provide several hundred million dollars in state aid to counties by paying for the bulk of the cost of county courts.

“It’s very realistic,” Pringle said of the deal’s chances.

Democrats sent a proposal to the governor that Wilson and his advisors discussed for several hours Thursday. Lockyer was unsure whether an agreement would be reached, but said, “It is worth working on.”

Pringle said the possible package would include an end to state capital gains taxes on home sales and a $50 to $100 increase in the state income tax credit for children, which now is $67 per child.

Additionally, Pringle said, the package would bring state tax codes into conformity with federal law by increasing the amount couples can put into Individual Retirement Accounts. They also could fund special accounts for education.

As outlined by Pringle, the package would contain a state tax reduction for closely held corporations, many of which are small and family-owned. Most of the changes would not take effect until the next fiscal year begins in July, though the capital gains cut could take effect in May, Pringle said.

Among others measures, the Legislature took final action on:

* Campaign filings, approving SB 49 by Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) to make politicians’ campaign finance reports available on the Internet by 2000. Secretary of State Bill Jones is among the backers, along with the California Voter Foundation.

* School safety, approving a bill by Assemblywoman Barbara Alby (R-Fair Oaks) to bar parolees who have been convicted of violent crimes from working at schools. Assemblywoman Debra Ortiz (D-Sacramento) won passage of another measure requiring that school districts obtain results of fingerprint checks before hiring school employers.

The bills were prompted after a felon was arrested in the killing of a high school senior, Michelle Montoya, on a campus in suburban Sacramento.

* The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, approving AB 1539 by Villaraigosa to require the county Board of Supervisors to audit the Sheriff’s Department every five years.

Times staff writers Carl Ingram, Max Vanzi and Dave Lesher contributed to this story.