CAPITOL FUMES OVER SMOG CHECK; STATE LAWMAKERS CALL FOR SCRAPPING OF NEW PROGRAM.

Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau

California's new, tough smog program is a ``scam'' that should be dismantled and replaced, lawmakers said Friday.

Members of the state Legislature's budget conference committee called the head of the Smog Check II program to appear next week to personally defend his program, and its $69 million budget.

``The whole thing is a scam. Nobody's trying to clean up the air here. There's not a single molecule of air that's going to be cleaned here,'' said state Sen. Steve Peace, D-La Mesa.

Committee members said they believe the Bureau of Automotive Repair has delayed making smog checks more stringent to conceal the fact that vehicle failure rates will skyrocket once the program is fully implemented.

And while proponents of Smog Check II said it is needed to keep the state on target to meet federal clean-air goals, lawmakers dismissed those concerns.

``We should all stand up in the state of California and tell them to shove it,'' said state Sen. Cathie Wright, R-Simi Valley.

Officials for the state Department of Consumer Affairs were taken aback by the hostile tone of lawmakers, but they pledged to cooperate with the committee's request.

``This isn't a program that was passed in the dark of night,'' said Bob Brown, a department spokesman. ``I can't predict what they'll do in the Legislature, but I can tell you we will be working with them to address their concerns.''

The Smog Check II program, which began earlier this month, requires car owners in Los Angeles County and other areas with smog problems to submit their vehicles to longer, more costly tests and to pay more if repairs are needed.

The new test equipment requires vehicles to be tested for an additional pollutant, nitrogen oxide, which makes polluted air brown. But Peace said the bureau plans to set the initial standard for nitrogen oxide, known as NOX, so high that initially virtually every car will pass.

``The program is so screwed up, we're going to set the test stuff so high that no one will fail,'' he said.

Peace demanded that the bureau's director, Marty Keller, appear before the committee before lawmakers include the bureau's funding in the state budget.

``I want to see Mr. Keller and I want to see him in a public hearing,'' fumed Peace, who labeled the agency ``a cartoon caricature of a bureaucracy.''

``We tried to do this privately, and we got stonewalled, absolutely stonewalled,'' he said. ``So maybe we need to do it in the public light.''

Brown acknowledged that the bureau plans to phase in NOX standards, but he said the move is meant to be sure the program works smoothly.

``We want to make sure we don't flip a switch overnight and cause problems,'' he said.

Brown admitted the failure rate would rise once NOX testing is fully implemented. But he said the bureau initially has seen failure rates decline in the early stages of the new program, perhaps because it calls for mechanics to look for problems before testing cars.

But Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, agreed with other lawmakers that problems with the program should be worked out before more stringent tests are carried out.

``I think it demands a resolution before we end up catching more people in the bureaucracy,'' he said.

Initial versions of the budget approved earlier in the Assembly and Senate denied funding for Smog Check II. The move was widely seen as a way to send a message to the bureau to implement measures meant to limit the impact of the program on the poor.

The conference committee is likely to eventually restore some of the money, if not all. But Peace and other committee members said they also are considering cutting all funding - a move that effectively would block its implementation.