EDITORIAL : QUAKE STALLING STATE ASSEMBLY NEEDS TO ACT QUICKLY ON INSURANCE REFORMS.

A false sense of security evidently has settled on the state Capitol in the two years since the 1994 Northridge Earthquake killed dozens of people and caused property damage in the billions of dollars.

How else to explain the Legislature's still unfinished work of ensuring earthquake insurance for California homeowners, even as the supply continues to dry up?

When lawmakers return to Sacramento this week, we urge them to put the highest priority on finishing a state quake insurance program.

There is no time to waste. Since the Northridge disaster inflicted costly losses, insurance companies have reduced the availability of quake coverage and raised the price of it, out of a recognition that another huge seismic shock could bankrupt their companies.

Government cannot force insurers to sell policies in the state - and, indeed, some companies already are pulling out of the market for homeowners insurance in California to avoid future catastrophic losses. Others are prepared to do so.

In the aftermath of the Northridge Earthquake, the most comprehensive solution so far is the California Earthquake Authority. Proposed by state officials, led by Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, the CEA would be a $10.5 billion program, publicly run but privately financed.

While no plan is without room for improvement, no fatal flaws have arisen in the CEA plan since it was unveiled more than eight months ago.

(For instance, some consumer groups continue to insist that CEA prices will be too high. But part of that is the cost of guaranteeing the availability of coverage, and making sure that Californians will be paid for quake losses. This would insure that in the event of a quake, there's still money in the bank.)

With the threat of another massive quake always a factor in California's future, and absent any credible alternative to the CEA, there's no good reason for the Legislature to deny approval for this kind of program.

We suspect that if a big quake had occurred within the past few weeks, something resembling the CEA would be on the fast track to approval at this moment - and getting a lot more attention than it has received so far.

To its credit, the state Senate already has approved the CEA by a two-thirds vote. But the Assembly has not yet voted on it, partly because the members were sidetracked by a partisan squabble over procedural issues.

We call upon the Assembly's squabbling Republicans and Democrats to shelve their partisan feud and approve the CEA. Doing so would be in the best interest of their constituents and the state.

Since it is only a matter of time until the next calamity, we caution the lawmakers not to dawdle.