Local politicos oppose governor’s plan

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger still has 18 days to persuade Republicans in the California legislature to sign on to his proposed temporary increase in the sales tax and about $4.5 billion in spending cuts.

Tuesday afternoon, Schwarzenegger called the second meeting of the “Big Five” — a bipartisan group of Democratic and Republican legislative leaders from the Assembly and Senate — to continue negotiations.

Local Republican Assemblymen Chuck DeVore and Van Tran, and Sen. Tom Harman — like most legislators — are not directly involved in the negotiating, but they get frequent reports from the minority party leaders about new developments.

So far, the three men have not been swayed when it comes to the issue of new taxes, and much like most of their Democratic counterparts they’re skeptical that the governor will be able to strike a consensus on that issue before the Nov. 30 deadline.

The governor remains confident that it will happen, though, according to his press secretary, Aaron McClear.

“We’re waiting for the governor to get Republican votes. He thinks he can finally get some Republican votes after not being able to for two years,” said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Democratic Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.

The tax increase and budget cuts were only part of the governor’s plan. Schwarzenegger also wants to declare a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures and create more regulations for the loan industry to make it more difficult for lenders to sign borrowers up for loans they can’t afford.

Harman and DeVore both think the two parties can reach some common ground on a few of the less central tenets of the governor’s plan.

“We’re likely to come to agreement on about 10% to 15% of the more common-sense proposals that he has put forward,” DeVore said.

Among the areas where DeVore says he sees eye to eye with his colleagues across the aisle are proposals to remove some obstacles for new construction projects that could create jobs. Usually the government takes a while to spend bond revenue, for instance, but since there is a scarcity of work for the construction industry there seems to be bipartisan support for expediting the process, DeVore said.

That would create work for people building schools, roads and the like.

Harman sees the proposal to help people stay in their homes as a possibility for consensus.

“I think we agree on some general principles, like that we ought to do something about this: We ought to help Californians stay in their homes,” Harman said.

DeVore, on the other hand, doesn’t want to see the government insert itself in the mortgage industry at all. Assisting people who took out loans they couldn’t afford encourages irresponsible behavior in the future, DeVore said. He also disagrees with the idea of increasing regulations on mortgage brokers.

“I think the best course of action is to let the free market operate. I just don’t see why the government is getting involved in this. The problem we face here is not a regulatory failure,” DeVore said.

The governor’s office says that keeping Californians in their homes will help stabilize property tax revenues, which provide much of the funding for local governments.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].