California’s state Senate failed on Tuesday to pass a bill approving nearly $7 billion in bond financing for prison health-care facilities but its advocates plan to bring the legislation back for a vote on Thursday.

“It fell five votes short,” said Clark Kelso, the court-appointed receiver who is pushing lawmakers to fund new construction to improve the state’s medical care for prison inmates.

“I have some hope that I’ll be able to turn some votes in the next couple of days,” Kelso said, during a telephone conference call with reporters.

Republicans in the Senate’s minority killed the bill, which Kelso said is urgently needed. It would provide for the construction of facilities, financed by lease-revenue bonds, for up to 10,000 prisoners.

Otherwise Kelso said he would seek a U.S. court order allowing him to seize cash in state coffers for improvements to the state’s prison health-care system.

“I’m extremely reluctant to do that,” he said. “It is my last resort.”

But Kelso said lawmakers must act quickly. “I can’t simply wait a year while we go around the policy-making bush again. I need to get started building,” he said.

Spokeswoman Lisa Page said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger remains hopeful lawmakers will pass a bond bill to help Kelso overhaul health-care delivery in California’s overcrowded prisons.

“The receiver’s plan is necessary,” Page said. “We are confident that the legislature understands the need to improve our prison health care system and the need to do so in a financially responsible way.”