Negotiations that have been percolating all year will come to fruition before midnight Friday, Sept. 12, the Legislature's adjournment deadline. Partisans in the battles over education funding, trial court support, wildlife protections, local government programs, student achievement testing and other fiercely debated issues are heading to the battlegrounds -- the floors of the Assembly and the Senate -- for the final negotiations that will have a dramatic impact on the lives of Californians.

First is an historic plan to place before voters the state's largest-ever bond proposal, an $8 billion package that would provide money to build and maintain public schools. The proposal began life as a pact between two of California's most influential lobbies, the California Building Industry Association and the California Teachers Association, but drew intense criticism from most of the educational community as a sellout to developers and an unfair limitation on the authority of local districts to demand top-quality school construction.

Marathon negotiations on the issue have been under way, and late last week a two-house conference committee reached a draft agreement on a plan that would link the bonds with a constitutional amendment allowing voters to approve local school projects with a simple-majority vote, instead of the two-thirds majority now required. Both pieces of the plan require approval on the statewide ballot in 1998 for either piece to go into effect. If they are defeated next June, they automatically would appear before voters in November. If approved, half the money -- $4 billion -- could be spent immediately; the rest could not be spent until after the turn of the century.

Legislative staffers worked on the details of the proposal throughout the weekend. A final vote in the conference committee is expected Tuesday, and the floor votes are anticipated by late Thursday or Friday.

Key lawmakers and the Wilson administration apparently are near agreement on the governor's $35 million proposal to require standardized student achievement testing in the 2nd-through-11th grades. The administration says the English-only tests are necessary to determine the quality of California's school instruction and to ascertain where California's students need to improve, but some Democrats -- backed by the California Teachers Association -- have complained that the tests would not be fair to those who are not proficient in English and would not provide meaningful results. Part of the compromise: students could, at the discretion of their local districts, take the tests in languages other than English, but ultimately would have to be tested in English when their proficiency improves. The compromise also gives state schools superintendent Delaine Eastin, a Democrat, a role in the testing program, although those details have yet to be worked out.

Republican Gov. Pete Wilson has said the Legislature must approve a testing program agreeable to him, or he will block more than $200 million in vetoed funds, money that he promised to restore if lawmakers crafted a test to his liking.

Yet another committee -- the Capitol seems to be filled with high-powered committee actions as the adjournment deadline nears -- has reached a compromise between environmentalists and business interests on California's Endangered Species Act, a wildlife protection law that often has been targeted by developers. Among other things, the legislation approved by the Assembly water committee gives state Fish and Game Department officials authority to issue permits giving builders and developers a limited right to damage wildlife and habitats during construction, but only if it is unintentional -- or "incidental" -- and if the builder agrees to repair any damage. A number of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society, as well as the state Chamber of Commerce, support the plan.

Two other critical issues, funding for trial courts and support for local governments, also are coming to a head. All but dead during the recent fight over the state budget, the issues have gained new momentum, largely because of interest of Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, the state's ranking Democrat and the second-most powerful state official after the governor. Few details are available on the negotiations, but they apparently involve similar dollar figures that were rejected earlier by Wilson -- a $100 million package for the counties and $450 million for trial courts, which are financed through a complex state-local formula.

The ultimate fate of these and other issues is far from certain.

But one thing is likely, given the Legislature's track record: The final votes probably will take place in the final minutes of the final day of the session, in the middle of the night, by weary lawmakers watched by even wearier reporters.

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