EDITORIAL SPRING RENEWAL LAWMAKERS HAVE ANOTHER BOND CHANCE.

The California Legislature has a chance to make amends to voters before election day next month.

Late Thursday, state senators and Assembly members were convening in special session, with hopes running that the Democrats and Republicans were close to a deal on $35 million public-works bond for the November ballot.

If they succeed in doing so, it will go a long way in making up for the debacle of March, when egos and infighting scuttled the first attempt at a bond deal.

For days, the Legislature seemed close to a deal for the first package of the $222 billion in infrastructure rebuilding projects that were proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his January State of the State speech. And although they pushed back deadlines again and again, it finally all came apart when the Senate shut down talks.

This time they have to get it right.

While smaller than the first bond proposal of $45 billion, this plan would still be a positive step: $19.2 billion for transportation projects, $10.4 billion for schools and universities, $3.1 billion for flood-control upgrades and $2.6 billion for housing.

However close they seem now, though, the public ought to keep in mind how close legislators came in March, until the whole deal fell apart over a few piddling details.

Indeed, even Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu ez acknowledged the potential pitfalls of expecting success. "I've been here long enough to know that over a comma in a sentence a deal can fall apart," he said.

If the future of California's schools, hospitals, roads, dams and other infrastructure rests on the whims of punctuation, we are all in trouble. It's up to the legislators to put aside their political differences and do the right thing for California.

And the right thing is to get a bond on the November ballot and to start the rebuilding process right away. California's future depends on it.