A special six-member conference committee ruled by Democrats and composed of members of both houses begins going through Republican Gov Pete Wilson's $75.8 billion spending plan line-by-line for the fiscal year beginning July 1. It is a complex, convoluted document, four inches thick and weighing five pounds, reflecting the governor's political philosophy and his vision for the future, and unlike Wilson's seven other budget blueprints, this one contains $4.4 billion in new revenues from California's booming economy.

There's plenty to fight over. Both houses already have crafted differing versions of the budget, leaving it to the conference committee to hammer out the differences.

Members of the public often wonder why people spend vast sums of money to win election to legislative offices that pay relatively modest salaries. The reason is simple -- it's the power. A handful of lawmakers decide the fate of billions of dollars worth of spending, sometimes in a matter of just minutes. Spending for schools, highways, prisons, welfare and other issues affecting 33 million Californians rests in the hands of a scant few legislators. It's true that both houses of the Legislature must give final approval to the budget before sending it to Gov. Wilson's desk. But by the time the document reaches the floors of the Senate and the Assembly, the critical details of the budget have been decided by the fiscal subcommittees and the half-dozen members of the two-house conference committee.

It's a pity that citizens who have seen politicians only through campaign television commercials can't watch them wrestling with government finances. Rhetoric is cheap, but decisions on spending cut to the heart of government and politics and offer an insight into the deep divisions between Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative.

Three issues immediately leap out -- the governor's $3.6 plan to cut automobile registration fees, the so-called "car tax," the state's $130 million share of the proposed save-the-redwoods pact known as the Headwaters Agreement, and new funding for schools.

The first is Wilson's attempt, patterned after a similar plan in Virginia, to curry political favor for his looming presidential campaign by cutting in half the amount of fees that motorists pay when they register their cars. In car-rich California, which has more than 20 million registered drivers, the car-tax reduction is a big issue indeed and it promises to take center stage this summer as debate over the budget intensifies.

The money for the state-federal Headwaters Agreement remains uncertain. The federal government months ago approved its $250 million share, but the state's piece of controversial accord remains uncertain. Wilson included the money in his budget draft, but the Democrats took it out, saying the agreement was flawed and did not contain sufficient environmental safeguards. A separate bill containing the money currently is before the Legislature, and it is likely to become a major political duel in this year's budget.

The Headwaters pact, brokered by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, would pay $380 million to Texas-based financier Charles Hurwitz, who controls Pacific Lumber Co., which owns vast acreage in Humboldt County that includes thousands of acres of ancient redwoods. In return for the government's money, Hurwitz would set aside 3,000 acres of old-growth redwoods, surrounded by an additional buffer zone of 4,500 acres of forest, as a public park.

If the state fails to approve its share of the agreement, the pact falls apart.

Finally, Wilson has proposed about $500 million for schools over and above the billions of dollars in school funding required by the voter-approved guarantee known as Proposition 98, which voters approved a decade ago. About the only condition Wilson has tied to the additional spending is that it not go for teachers' salaries, which means a major political fight looms over how best to spend the money.

Unlike the politically loaded pronouncements of the campaign trail, the budget deliberations are tedious, dry and downright boring.

But it is these negotiations that decide California's future after the rhetoric of the campaigns has long been forgotten.

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