Baseball's Giants lose but school GOs win; voters make the call on California ballots.

LOS ANGELES-- California voters Tuesday approved $2.8 billion of general obligation bonds to finance schools statewide, while voters in San Jose rejected a proposal for tapping public funds to build a stadium for the San Franciso Giants.

In Los Angeles County, meanwhile, voters rejected a $100 million general obligation bond measure to install sprinklers in county buildings.

On the schools ballot, state voters gave a 53.1% approval margin to Proposition 152, a $1.9 billion GO proposal to construct or repair elementary and secondary schools, according to a spokeswoman in the secretary of state's office. Proposition 153, a $900 million bond authorization for higher education facilities, recieved 51% voter approval.

Both state measures required a simple majority for passage.

California leaders restricted Tuesday's proposals to education, partly to improve chances for passage of critically needed construction bonds. State officials also hoped to avoid a repeat of the November 1990 election, when a cluttered ballot for state GO measures prompted voters to reject the bulk of bond proposals.

In San Jose, local voters declined to increase their utility tax by 2% to help finance a 48,000-seat baseball stadium for the Giants.

"We're disappointed. We saw this as an incredible opportunity for San Jose," a spokeswoman for Mayor Susan Hammer said yesterday.

The proposal, Measure G. concluded with 78,809 voters, or 45.5%, voting for the measure, and 94,466 of them, or 54.5%, voting against.

The defeat marked the fourth time in six years that voters in different parts of the Bay Area have rejected proposals to consider a new home for the Giants. Bob Lurie, the owner of the team, is unhappy with the cold and windy conditions at Candlestick Park, the Giants' current home.

San Jose had planned to use various revenue streams, including the utility tax increase, to secure tax-exempt certificates of participation for part of the stadium's costs.

Mayor Hammer and other stadium supporters believed the stadium would create hundreds of new jobs and bring economic development and prestige to San Jose. The mayor's spokeswoman said "that's pretty much the end of the story" for the stadium proposal, adding there are no plans for another election. Mr. Lurie has suggested he might sell the Giants to out-of-state suitors if the team cannot find a new Bay Area home.

Los Angeles County's $100-million GO bond measure to retrofit buildings with fire sprinklers and fund other fire safety systems failed to win the two-thirds approval vote it needed, according to Judy Hammond, a spokeswoman for the county chief administrator's office. About 53% of county voters favored the measure and 47% opposed it.

"We have no options now. There is just no money," Ms. Hammond said. "It will have to go on the back burner." Debora Vrana contributed to this article.

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