Posted on 03/01/2006 4:14:10 PM PST by calcowgirl
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has amended his levee and flood control bond to include $6 billion in borrowing in 2006, up from the $1 billion he proposed less than two months ago in his $222 billion infrastructure plan.
The change comes on the heels of a trip to Washington D.C. where Schwarzenegger met with White House officials and members of California's congressional delegation to pressure for additional federal funding for the state's levee system.
The new $6 billion bond for levees and flood protection is a sign that the administration may be pessimistic about the prospects of federal funding. The governor's original proposal included $1 billion in state bonds this year, an additional $1.5 billion in 2010, $3 billion in federal funds and $500 million in local money.
The governor's office confirmed the changes to the bond and referred questions to Sen. Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, who sits on the Senate Natural Resources and Water committee and is carrying the governor's bond.
"The governor and Sen. Aanestad are going to move forward with the assumption that the federal money is not going to be there," said Aanestad spokesman William Bird. "If the federal money comes in great, but if it doesn't it is not going to shut the project down."
While in Washington D.C., Schwarzenegger met with White House chief of staff Andrew Card to push for federal disaster declaration for California's levees. Schwarzenegger had declared a state emergency for some of the state's levees on Friday to speed repairs and allow the state to waive environmental reviews.
The governor also met with House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-CA, and U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to press for federal aid for the state's levees.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Feinstein said that having the federal government declare a disaster before the levees actually broke would be "very difficult."
Schwarzenegger said that though "we made our case" to the White House, he was given "no assurances" of federal assistance. Schwarzenegger also met with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who promised to tour California's levee system in the coming weeks.
Both Senate Leader Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez were critical of the governor's failure to bring home any tangible federal aid from his east coast swing.
"The governor's bond proposal assumes a massive influx of federal funds, so the Bush Administration could at least have given some sign that that is even possible," said Perata.
Nunez added that, "We are disappointed that he is returning to California empty-handed. With California Republicans in control of six key Congressional committees and with the Administration's strong links to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, we were hopeful the Governor would have been able to obtain more than" a visit from Chertoff.
The governor is scheduled to meet with all four legislative leaders on Wednesday to discuss the state's emergency preparedness. The meeting, which has been planned for a week, comes in response to a Feb. 8 letter by Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, asking the governor to convene the California Emergency Council.
With the new amendments, the total size of Schwarzenegger's flood control and water bond would rise to $8 billion this year, and the total borrowing in the governor's infrastructure package would grow to $71.5 billion.
Nobody has told Arnold that we already have billions$ of outstanding bonds to pay off?
Hello!?
What is California's accumulated debt?
I need to know! I can't leave for another year or two...
My guess is that neither federal funding considerations nor estimated costs directly entered into this new equation. Focus group results were the controlling factor.
If you build it they will come.
All of the news reports say that he went to Washington to ask for support for his $100 million plan to shore up the levees.
His failure to gain support is now being translated into a rejection of his $6 billion dollar water plan included in the Strategic Growth Plan.
Somewhere upwards of $50 billion, but who's counting? /s
$222 billon Dream on Arnie.
The numbers don't matter. This is not a need based request. The gang doesn't care if the levees are repaired or not. They simply care that a sponsored proposal receives public approval, thereby enhancing their candidate's gravitas in future endeavors.
The gang's constant theme is; "Let the public decide!"; while offering no decision making alternatives. It's either their way or the highway (pun intended).
Example: The gang now wants the public to decide the road building priorities, since they came under sharp attack earlier this week by both the MSM and the conservative blogosphere for their paternalism in selecting infrastructure construction priorities.
Prudent folks would expect that this yearning would result in a laundry list of proposed projects being submitted to the electorate with the most popular being advanced. What will happen however is that only the gang's methodology, the governor selects, will be submitted for public approval, not actual projects.
As I've said before, the imported White House talent, courtesy of Rove and Parsky, is good.
I'm not so sure. If Mr. Norquist was really that talented, don't you think Anold would have brought off at least one of his special election propositions?
Summary of Arguments FOR Proposition 42:
Police, fire and public safety officials, taxpayer groups, auto clubs recommend YES on 42. Requires gasoline sales tax (we already pay at the pump) be used to improve road safety, mass transit and reduce traffic-- WITHOUT RAISING TAXES. 6000 bridges/overpasses need repair. ANNUAL AUDIT required. Provides ACCOUNTABILITY to TAXPAYERS.
It can't happen... HERE,
I'm telling you my DEAR
That it can't happen... HERE
Cause I've been checking it out, baby.
Yeah.
Whooooo could imagine,
That they would freak out in, California!
I have two very honest issues with this statement.
1) My reference was to the two hot dogs brought in recently to control the CRP convention fallout
2) I see the Austrian as a sincere fellow who is a spokesman for a group of seasoned political deviates.
That's not to say that the Austrian can't count to ten or that he is not capable of forming his own opinions but rather, like most on a steep learning curve, he listens to advisers, selects what he feels is the best choice offered and then fires the advisers if things go south.
The Austrian recently, and rather candidly, admitted that the initiatives which he was asked to support, his words not mine, were "rushed" and more time should have been taken in their selection.
The Austrian isn't the trains engineer, nor its conductor, but rather a welcomed passenger, supplying his own Pullman, who is treated with deference and respect while others plot the journey, pull the throttle and feed the fire box.
He has lost his mind.
I think Prop 111 is still my favorite, backed by(R) Deukmejian it increased taxes and obliterated the Gann spending limit for all practicle purposes. I'd love to read the Ballot Summary on this one to see how it was characterized--the title is just sooooooo 'feel good'!
Amerigomag- didn't you find a website that had hosted copies of old Voter Guides? I thought I bookmarked it, but can't find it.
http://lalaw.lib.ca.us/ballot-1990.html
Proposition 111
Traffic congestion relief & spending limitation act of 1990.
1989 Cal. Res. 66 (SCA 1) Enacts a statewide traffic congestion relief program & updates the spending limit on state and local government to better reflect the needs of a growing California population. Provides new revenues to be used to reduce traffic congestion by building state highways, local streets &roads and public mass transit facilities. Enacts a 55% increase in truck weight fees & a five-cent-per-gallon increase in the fuel tax on August 1, 1990 & an additional one cent on January 1 of each of the next 4 years. Updates the state appropriations limit to allow for new funding for congestion relief, mass transit, health care, services for the elderly & other priority state programs, while still providing an overall limit on state and local spending. Provides that public education and community colleges receive at least 40% of the state General Fund budget & provides that revenues in excess of the state appropriations limit are allocated equally between education & taxpayers.
Thank you! That's the one. :-)
Bookmark. I note that the directory starts with 1911, the year that the State Constitution was amended to include the current iniative process. I tried downloading one of those files and got the file (an image, not text), but it wouldn't let me save it. :-(
It still bees here suckin away at our wallets like mosquitos suckin little drops of blood and given the CA economy West Nile Virus!!!
Melodramatic, definitely. Good? Time will tell.
SF Chronicle, March 1, 2006
The Californians didn't win any commitments of support, but they said they made their case that spending the money now could save tens of billions of dollars later if major flooding occurs in Sacramento and the delta.
"The federal government should ask, 'Do you want to spend $80 billion, like with Katrina, or do you want to solve it with a few billion dollars?'" Schwarzenegger told reporters after the meeting in Feinstein's office.
California officials are pressing to get the emergency money included as part of Bush's special spending request for $19.8 billion for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and $72.4 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hearings are scheduled to begin next week.
Five years later I find the whitewater rafting community of corporations and their fleecing "Not For Profit" fundraising corporations using Prop 111 grant money from CalTrans to build and landscape a river bottom raft inflating put-in site that almost immediately got scoured off the face of the river bottom sending thousands of Prop 111 gas taxes down the river into Folsom Reservoir!!!
Prop 111 provided these funds for mitigation of environmental impacts of any road repairs/improvements, etc. Duke must have known that was in there and that made him a complete liar!!!
CO, I think it will let you save it, you just have to wait until the whole thing loads (a long time). The 1911 Summary is a 12 Meg file. Depending on your internet connection, it should take a long time. It took mine more than 5 minutes on hi-speed DSL (PDF downloads are always slow).
Saving an unaltered copy requires AAR v 7.0. Perhaps an update is warranted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.