Wilson Sides With County on Hospital

SACRAMENTO —  In a political triumph for the Board of Supervisors, Gov. Pete Wilson on Friday vetoed legislation that would have deprived Los Angeles County of $225 million in construction funds for a new County-USC Medical Center if the supervisors did not bow to state lawmakers’ demands that they build a bigger hospital.

Wilson’s action is a blow to a coalition of powerful Los Angeles-area lawmakers--including Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles)--who had lobbied aggressively for the governor to stay out of the escalating battle between them and the Board of Supervisors over the size of the medical center.

The coalition had crafted the special legislation to force the supervisors to back down from their plans to build a 600-bed hospital and trauma center in Boyle Heights. The supervisors have refused to do so, despite the state lawmakers’ repeated assertions that a hospital with the capacity for 750 beds is needed to meet the medical needs of East Los Angeles’ growing population.

The bill passed the Assembly and Senate last week.

By vetoing the measure, Wilson essentially sided with the supervisors, who had asked that the governor--and state lawmakers in general--stay out of their financial and political affairs. The decision on what size hospital to build, a majority of the supervisors have said, is a matter of local control, and should rest solely with them.

In a brief statement, Wilson said he was declining to sign the bill because the supervisors had determined that only 600 beds were necessary.

Therefore, Wilson said, it would be “inappropriate” to use state and federal funds to “build a facility which exceeds expected need.”

Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh said conservative Supervisor Mike Antonovich “helped educate us” on the importance of local control.

“The governor listens to [Antonovich] and did listen to [him] in this case,” Walsh said.

County officials hailed Wilson’s veto.

“This was a budget-busting mandate, and the veto by Gov. Wilson is for responsible medical care and local control,” said Antonovich, a Wilson ally who had lobbied the governor for the veto of the bill.

Like colleagues Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe, Antonovich has said that the state coalition’s demands for a larger facility could bankrupt the nation’s largest county just as it was getting back on sound fiscal footing after a brush with insolvency in 1995.

“If the state Legislature wants a 750-bed hospital, even though it would be the largest in the United States, they should provide full funding for the hospital,” Antonovich said, “and not expect local government to rob public safety funds to maintain it.”

Supervisor Gloria Molina, the Eastside board member who was the lone holdout for the larger hospital, was on vacation and did not return calls seeking comment.

State Sen. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte), who carried the bill, said late Friday that she was “deeply disappointed” by Wilson’s veto. She also criticized the supervisors for refusing to build a bigger hospital even though their own health officials originally said 750 beds were needed.

“It is inexplicable to me,” Solis said in a statement, “that despite findings from all the experts that 600 beds is not adequate, that the governor would decide to shortchange the people.”

Wilson’s veto does not mean the supervisors will never get the $225 million.

But it does throw the political football squarely into the laps of the coalition of state lawmakers, who can either agree to give the supervisors the $225 million in funds sometime in the next year, or continue to stall the legislation that would make the funds available.

Withholding those funds would be fraught with political peril because it would also impact their own constituents on the Eastside who will rely on the new hospital as a linchpin in the public health and safety net.

The supervisors are set to vote Sept. 15 to proceed with plans to build the 600-bed facility if the state coalition agrees to free up the $225 million. If it does not, Antonovich said, the board will vote to build a 500-bed facility, and blame the loss of the 100 beds on the lack of state funding.

Said Antonovich: “We are going to build the size hospital [that is] based on the Legislature’s funding. If they fail to fund the 600-bed facility, we will build a 500-bed hospital.”

Yaroslavsky said the state lawmakers should now reconsider his compromise offer to build a hospital big enough for only 600 beds, but include enough real estate next to it so an annex could be built later to add on beds.

“The relationship between our legislators in Sacramento and the county ought to be characterized by less brinkmanship and more statesmanship,” Yaroslavsky said. “There is no reason we can’t reach a meeting of the minds quickly on this, if the will is there.”

Josh Meyer reported from Los Angeles and Max Vanzi reported from Sacramento.