California Republicans block prison healthcare plan
The action in the state Senate comes even as a court-appointed official says he will tap the state treasury to fund medical facilities for prisoners if lawmakers don't settle on another way to pay.
SACRAMENTO — State Senate Republicans today blocked, for the second time, a $7-billion plan to build prison medical facilities -- even after a court-appointed receiver put officials on notice that he was preparing to raid state accounts for billions of dollars to get the job done.
The failure of lawmakers to take action to remedy substandard medical care in prisons sets up a showdown with the federal courts, and threatens to substantially worsen the state's fiscal crisis.
Republican lawmakers said they also intended Friday to reject the proposed settlement of a lawsuit in federal court related to prison healthcare and overcrowding. The deal would have averted a trial that could result in a mass release of prisoners.
The lawmakers have vowed to go to the U.S. Supreme Court in the event the state receives such a verdict.
This morning, the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, wrote in a sharply worded letter to Department of Finance Director Mike Genest that if the Senate failed to approve the $7-billion plan, which was put before the Legislature at Kelso's request, he would have no choice but to demand that the state provide the money.
The plan had been endorsed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who appointed Kelso. Senate Republicans blocked it the first time on Tuesday, arguing that the costs were too high and that the proposal had not been coordinated with other plans, such as the potential settlement of the court case to reduce the inmate population by tens of thousands.
The lawmakers insisted again today that the state itself should craft a solution to the healthcare and overcrowding problems in the prisons, using a bill passed last year to build new beds for inmates, and by working with the receiver.
State Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster) said the lawmakers should demonstrate that "we can control the prisons, instead of a liberal federal court."
Democrats warned against provoking the court.
"This is a dangerous game of chicken," said state Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). "I hope that you all know what you're doing."
The legislation that was blocked, SB 1665, would have involved the state selling bonds to make the improvements and paying them off over many years. Now, Kelso, who is empowered by the court to take whatever he needs from the state's treasury with a judge's consent, is threatening to tap the funds immediately.
He warned in the letter that he would take $3.5 billion in the current and upcoming fiscal years and $3.5 billion more over the next two years.
California is already in the midst of a fiscal crisis, and the effects of such action would be severe. The budget deficit would immediately swell to $18.7 billion from $15.2 billion. If lawmakers could not agree on a budget within a few weeks of the July 1 deadline, the state would face the prospect of running out of cash over the summer.
"I remain hopeful that the Senate will act favorably upon SB 1665," Kelso wrote in his letter, "and that I will not be forced to ask you to immediately sweep all available funds and to take other extraordinary reallocations of funds. . . . However, I can no longer stand idly by while the State continues its pattern of prevarication."
evan.halper@latimes.com
michael.rothfeld@latimes.com
