Last-minute objections from Assemblyman Jared Huffman and Sen. Mark Leno have prompted state Treasurer Bill Lockyer delay plans for issuing bonds to pay for the expansion of death row at San Quentin State Prison.

Huffman and Leno sent a letter to Lockyer on Wednesday asserting that sale of the bonds would be illegal until resolution of litigation challenging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of budget language on conditions for financing of the project.

"Because of the legal issues raised by the letter, we downsized our bond sale to basically take financing for the San Quentin condemned inmate complex out of the sale," Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for the treasurer, said today.

The state bond sale, which began Wednesday at $1.34 billion, has now been reduced to $750 million, Dresslar said.

"We just didn't have time to adequately address the legal questions raised by the letter, so we decided we're not going to sell any bonds for that particular project," Dresslar said.

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the governor, said sale of the bonds for the prison expansion will go forward when the legal issues have been resolved.

"This isn't an issue of not ever; it's simply an issue of not right now," Palmer said.

Huffman and Leno added the language that Schwarzenegger vetoed to one of the more than 30 bills that legislators approved in July as part of a deal to erase the state's $26 billion deficit.

The language prohibited

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issuance of bonds until the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation determined that it could lawfully double-cell condemned inmates; federal court litigation on prison overcrowding currently before a three-judge panel was resolved; and the correction department completed California Environmental Quality Act analyses for any modifications to the project.

Huffman said the governor had no authority to use the line-item veto on policy language. Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg filed a lawsuit Aug. 10 contending the governor had unconstitutionally vetoed various line items in the budget bills, including the San Quentin legislation.

Palmer said that legally, only items of appropriation could be put in the budget document; therefore, anything in the document could be removed using the line-item veto.

Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com.