WILSON'S RESPONSE CRITICIZED.

Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau

When floods earlier this month inundated homes and farms outside Sacramento, Gov. Pete Wilson ordered his cabinet secretaries into the field and convened a special session of the Legislature to jump start relief efforts.

Even before the flood waters had begun to recede, Wilson had formed a Flood Emergency Action Team, ordering them to report back within 30 days on how to expedite levee repairs.

But Wilson's moves to quickly come to the aid of flood victims is drawing criticism from some lawmakers representing the San Fernando Valley.

They and officials who oversaw the Valley's recovery from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake recall that Wilson called no special session then. Instead, he scrapped a $575 million disaster loan program after a bond measure failed at the polls and blocked a sales tax hike to pay for quake repairs.

``Pete Wilson, he was governor then, right?'' asked a cynical Gary Squier, general manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department. ``He was not a presence during any of the recovery efforts we were involved in.''

Wilson was out of the state last week on a trade mission to Asia. But his spokesman on disaster relief maintained that the governor acted decisively after both the floods and the Northridge Quake.

``I think the governor's record is clear,'' said Ron Low, a Wilson spokesman. ``If you look at his record, he has been quick to respond with all the programs necessary to help.''

State Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, said he recalls Wilson's role after the quake revolving around photo opportunities staged near freeways. Though Wilson cut some red tape to speed repairs, funds for the projects came from the federal government.

As the first bills designed to aid flood recovery efforts are introduced, Hayden said he sees a looming disaster double standard.

``I think floods and natural catastrophes are very important for all of us to pull together on, but it has to be fair, and in this case it has not been fair,'' Hayden said. ``I'm mindful that the Valley got much less attention.''

Wilson's critics point to the California Natural Disaster Assistance Program, a last-resort loan program established to help repair damaged homes and apartments whose owners couldn't qualify for other aid.

The program was established after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Operating the loan fund to assist Northridge victims would have cost about $575 million. But when state voters rejected a $2 billion bond measure to cover quake costs, Wilson shelved the program, saying at the time that the state ``simply does not have the resources.''

The decision to scuttle the loan program left some quake victims unable to make repairs, said Neal Dudovitz, executive director of San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services.

``I still believe we probably have thousands, or certainly hundreds, of homes in the Valley where people have damage from the quake that they can't afford to fix,'' he said.

Squier said local officials concentrated on securing aid through federal sources, including the Small Business Administration and HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. Congress ultimately authorized $20 billion in aid.

The city could have used more help from the state as well, but working with Sacramento proved inefficient, Squier said.

``When you're trying to recover from a disaster, there isn't time for lobbying and whatnot,'' Squier said. ``It's safe to say that we got no state money for housing.''

At one point in the disaster-relief process, the state actually looked to local officials for cash. The state considered taking a $125 million loan from federal disaster funds sent to the city of Los Angeles, but abandoned the idea after other funds became available, officials said.

Part of the reason that the state was short of funds was Wilson's refusal to support a temporary sales tax increase, said state Sen. Hershel Rosenthal, D-Los Angeles. A similar increase was imposed statewide after the Loma Prieta quake.

``He hardly lifted a finger,'' Rosenthal said of Wilson. ``He let the federal government pick up the entire tab.''

Rosenthal also noted that Wilson's Department of Finance opposed a bill he introduced to provide extra income-tax relief to quake victims whose losses were not covered by insurance.

He blamed the difference in Wilson's response to the two disasters on politics.

``L.A. is not his support. Northern California and the (Central) Valley is,'' Rosenthal said. ``That's why he came out early with support for them.''

A spokesman for the state Department of Finance angrily rejected the notion that the location of a disaster might influence the governor's response to it.

``When people are in need, the state responds, and it responds quickly,'' said H.D. Palmer, an assistant director at the department. ``The suggestion that regionalism is a factor, that is preposterous.''

Palmer said finance officials opposed Rosenthal's measure as too costly, noting that the state had already provided $300 million in income-tax relief to quake victims, on top of property tax help.

He faulted legislators for failing to provide an ongoing source of revenue for the disaster assistance program. He and other Wilson officials said that imposing a sales tax increase to pay for the program in 1994 would have hurt the state's then-struggling economy.

``The bigger picture was the state's economic vitality,'' Low said.

Low noted that a number of state agencies did lend a hand after the Northridge Quake, which damaged or destroyed 65,000 homes and apartments in Los Angeles alone, and caused $25.3 billion in property losses.

The state provided bridge loans for those waiting for financing from the federal Small Business Association. It also set aside overtime rules and building restrictions and waived fees for mobile home owners.

The California Conservation Corps helped provide fresh drinking water and the Office of Emergency Services brought in search and rescue teams. The state also sent in 600 engineers and architects to inspect damaged buildings.

But the list of support services for victims of the floods, which damaged or destroyed about 16,000 homes, is already at least as long. Bridge loans are already authorized. The Army National Guard provided 730 soldiers. Some 550 conservation corps members helped sandbag levies and make repairs, along with 1,500 inmates and 2,000 support personnel from the state's Department of Forestry.

Each of the governor's cabinet members was assigned a specific task in the flood relief effort, Low said, and the governor gets daily briefings on the issue even while out of the country.

``The governor has been very hands-on, and he will continue to be very hands-on,'' Low said.

Wilson has called more than a dozen special sessions of the Legislature during his two terms in office. There was one after the Los Angeles riots, one dealing with worker's compensation reform and one to discuss the white fly infestation.

But Low said there was no reason to call one after the Northridge Quake, because state lawmakers were already meeting. Both houses were officially in session when Wilson called for the session to deal with the floods as well, but legislators had barely begun their work, Low said.

It remains to be seen just how much the session will produce in the way of flood relief, and what new programs, if any, Wilson will support.

Low said that a tax-relief bill already introduced as part of the session mirrors the kind of disaster assistance Wilson has supported in the past. He said Wilson's office had yet to take a position on a proposal to spend $170 million to help local governments finance flood control projects.

And while Los Angeles lawmakers said they want the state to help those in need, how far they believe the state should go is up in the air.

``I think the question has to be asked, why should Los Angeles residents, including victims of the Northridge Earthquake, give back so much in tax dollars to support his (Wilson's) agenda up north?'' Hayden said.