California would change in dozens of ways, ranging from higher vehicle registration fees to construction of a new San Quentin death row, under the Legislature's newly adopted budget package.

Buried in hundreds of pages of implementing documents, called trailer bills, are decisions on key public policy matters likely to affect nearly every state resident in some way.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised to sign the linchpin $104.3 billion state general fund budget, but he retains the right to reject specific appropriations or veto trailer bills.

Motorists would pay $11 more each year to register their vehicles, raising $490 million to help the California Highway Patrol hire 120 officers.

In Sacramento, the state would be authorized to sell or exchange state land for use in the Sacramento River docks project and for a children's museum in Old Sacramento. It also could lease, sell or exchange land for expansion of St. Francis High School.

A statewide after-school program championed by Schwarzenegger through Proposition 49, passed in 2002 before he ran for office, is targeted by one of this year's trailer bills. State law currently requires spending at least $550 million a year on the after-school program. Lawmakers want an initiative placed before voters to give the Legislature control over funding.

A dispute between Democrats and Republicans killed a budget-related bill to settle a long-running legal fight by committing $8 billion in lease-revenue bonds for creation of 10,000 medical or mental health beds to serve prison inmates.

Legislators also balked at allowing billboards along certain Southern California freeways to benefit, among others, Huntington Beach auto dealerships and a downtown Los Angeles entertainment district being built by billionaire Philip Anschutz.

Derek Cressman, a Common Cause official, said it is not unusual for lawmakers to "piggyback" budget and public policy issues, many of which have monetary implications.

"It's very important to read the fine print," Cressman said.

Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, said trailer bills are a necessary part of the budget process, providing statutory authority, but they also can be padded to serve special interests.

"They get very little scrutiny and usually are rushed through the process the night the budget goes out," McClintock said.

A tax loophole that served as a lightning rod in budget talks was closed, barring buyers from dodging sales taxes by acquiring a yacht, aircraft or vehicle in another state and waiting three months to bring it into California.

One seemingly innocuous proposal for the state's Medi-Cal program is projected to save $13.9 million, but critics contend it would have devastating effects on more than 250,000 children.

The measure would require children to enroll in Medi-Cal every six months, rather than yearly, with exceptions for disabled children and pregnant teenagers.

Families whose incomes had risen beyond Medi-Cal eligibility could be detected earlier under the plan, but it also could strip health coverage from hordes of eligible kids whose parents simply forget to file paperwork.

"It's a cynical cut," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a nonprofit advocacy group. "It deliberately makes government more administratively complex for the purpose of saving money."

Other commitments in the budget package before Schwarzenegger would:

• Eliminate an academic testing program, called norm referenced testing, designed to compare the performance of third- and seventh-graders with peers nationwide.

• Accommodate rising costs of a new San Quentin death row by committing the additional $136 million needed to break ground.

• Encourage use of zero-emission vehicles in coming years by providing $6 million for an ongoing "hydrogen highway" program to provide filling stations and vehicle incentives.

• Require personal income tax obligations exceeding $80,000 annually to be transmitted electronically, so the state can accrue earnings from it sooner.

• Delay implementation of a law, until July 2010, that was designed to make it easier for adoptees to identify and contact their biological siblings.

• Increase annual permits to sell alcoholic beverages by 11 percent.

• Exempt computer software professionals earning more than $75,000 per year from overtime pay.

• Give the California Gambling Control Commission $30 million for local projects to offset the impact of tribal gaming.

Legislators killed a trailer bill to bolster the state's film industry by providing unspecified grants for movie, television or other motion picture projects.

Call Jim Sanders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5538.