BOARD BACKS HOME FOR VETS LETTER MIGHT PROVE KEY IN BUDGET TALKS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - California Veterans Board members gave their backing Saturday to appropriating $12 million for the stalled Lancaster veterans home.

With 200 veterans and other home supporters in attendance, and under prodding by Assemblyman George Runner and state Sen. W.J. ``Pete'' Knight, the board agreed to provide a letter that Runner can use during budget negotiations next month between state Senate and Assembly leaders.

``We are under the gun for this year and this year's funding. We are under an extremely tight schedule,'' Knight, R-Palmdale, told the board.

Runner and Knight pushed the board for a quick vote because the federal government set Aug. 15 as the deadline for veterans home proposals to qualify for inclusion on next year's priority list.

The Lancaster home has already missed the last two rounds of federal funding because of delays in appropriating the state's share: 35 percent of the expected $36 million construction cost. The federal government is expected to provide the other 65 percent.

The Lancaster home is proposed to be large enough for 400 veterans, with a convalescent hospital as well as apartments for veterans able to live independently. The city of Lancaster has donated land for it at Avenue I and 30th Street West.

``We're hurting. We need that home here,'' Korean War veteran Raul Alvarez told the board.

Tom Craft, a retired Navy officer and head of a citizens committee that supports the Lancaster veterans home, said an unofficial waiting list for people wanting to move into the home already has more than 500 names.

The board vote came despite a warning from its legal counsel that state law requires at least 10 days public notice before an action. Knight and Runner argued that agenda items about health department licensing for the Chula Vista and Barstow veterans homes were sufficient notice.

In the end, the board voted 3-0 - with one abstention - to write a letter, instead of passing a more formal resolution.

Board member Pedro Carrillo abstained because of the board attorney's advice.

Member John Fitzke joked to the audience: ``If we go to jail, I'm sure you'll bring us milk and cookies.''

The veterans board has endorsed the Lancaster home in the past, most recently last year, but Runner and Knight said they needed a specific vote in favor of appropriating the $12 million in time for budget negotiations starting in about 10 days.

Gov. Gray Davis, who vetoed a $12 million appropriation last year, did not include money for the Lancaster home in his proposed 2001-2002 budget. State Department of Veterans Affairs officials say they don't want to start the Lancaster project until the Barstow and Chula Vista homes are fully operational.

Assembly leaders put the money into their version of the budget, but the state Senate did not.

The differences between the Senate and the Assembly versions must be worked out in time for lawmakers to vote by June 15. The governor can still veto the $12 million, as he did last September on the grounds that the need for the home had not been established.

The money would come from a $50 million ballot measure approved by California voters to build veterans homes in Lancaster and Ventura County and to refurbish a century-old home in Northern California.

First suggested more than 10 years ago, the Lancaster home has run into years of delays.

In 1994, a state task force dropped the Lancaster home's construction schedule behind the home proposed in Chula Vista, in San Diego County. Then a state law prohibited construction from starting in Lancaster until Chula Vista's home was open and operating.

The most recent delay followed a 1999 change in federal law, which kept the Lancaster home off a priority list because the state had never appropriated its share of construction funds.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Veterans sign a letter supporting a veterans home in Lancaster, with budget talks set in the Legislature next week.

(2 -- 3 -- color) Veteran Dawson Stephens, left, introduces himself to members of the California Veterans Board in Lancaster on Saturday while veterans and supporters, below, applaud a speaker advocating the veterans home.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer