Posted on 03/11/2006 9:00:27 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO – Lawmakers were stuck on whether to include new reservoirs in a massive public works program yesterday as they missed a formal deadline for placing a record bond measure on the June ballot.
However, legislators said the $47 billion bond proposal to help build a new backbone for economic growth in California can still make the ballot if legislation is passed by early next week.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for a historic investment in the state by ultimately pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into roads and mass transit, water facilities, housing, parks and school and university buildings.
The state Senate held a late-night session yesterday to discuss the bond proposal.
Legislators from both parties said a push by Assembly Republicans to include money for increased water storage with new dams and reservoirs, among other things, had become a sticking point.
It's a long-standing issue that draws opposition from environmentalists, who urge more water conservation and increased transfer of water from farms to urban areas.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, has offered a compromise based on underground water storage. But Assembly Republicans were insisting on conventional water storage above the ground.
“I don't believe we get a bond deal unless you have surface water storage,” said Assemblyman George Plescia, R-La Jolla, who was elected this week to become the Assembly Republican leader next month.
Plescia said he thinks more water storage is supported by most Californians, including San Diegans who rely on water imported from the Colorado River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Democrats hold majorities in both houses of the Legislature but need at least two Republican votes in the Senate and six in the Assembly for the two-thirds majority needed to put the bond measure on the ballot.
The previous record bond issue approved by voters, $15 billion for deficit bonds in March 2004, would be eclipsed by a bond proposal of about $37 billion in June called for under the pending plan. An additional $10 billion for education facilities would be voted on in 2008.
While politics are part of every equation at the state Capitol, several lawmakers said the debate was being driven by policy priorities.
A massive investment in public works would give Schwarzenegger, whose popularity fell last year as voters rejected his ballot initiatives, something to run on as he seeks re-election.
Núñez said Democrats are aware that the plan could give a political boost to the Republican governor.
“We are not going to allow the ideology to drag us into a fistfight with the governor and keep us from doing the right thing,” the speaker said in response to a question at a news conference yesterday.
As often happens on major deals, the 120 legislators were being asked to quickly scan the plan yesterday as it was being put into bill form.
“This is a major vote,” Plescia said, “and it's irresponsible for me to commit to something I haven't seen.”
When agreement is reached on big issues, negotiators worry that powerful special interests will pick a deal apart if it is not acted on quickly.
“This isn't new,” Núñez said in defense of a swift vote. “All of these issues are issues that we have been discussing for more than a year in this Legislature.”
How the massive amount of spending would be distributed among areas of the state is another concern for legislators, who want to make sure their districts aren't shorted.
Núñez joined Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a news conference in Los Angeles last month as he announced that he would push for more money for mass transit.
“Public transit needs are vast in this state, and I know some folks have made the connection to Los Angeles,” Núñez said yesterday when asked how the mass transit money would be allocated.
“When you see the language, you will see that it will be a fair process that everyone can participate in,” Núñez said.
The plan has about $4.5 billion for mass transit and about $8.75 billion for roads and highways. Schwarzenegger's original proposal contained a much smaller amount for mass transit.
Núñez said one of the few projects specifically earmarked for funding is $1 billion for Highway 99, the state-built freeway that runs through the east side of the Central Valley in areas represented by Republicans.
It was not clear whether the new compromise plan retains funding in the governor's original proposal for projects in the San Diego area on Interstates 5, 15, 805 and 905.
Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, said the transportation part of the plan includes money for trade corridors that could go to improving traffic flow at the U.S.-Mexico border and access to the San Diego port.
“I am fairly comfortable with some of the language I have seen and San Diego's ability to compete in some of the categories,” she said.
The plan also includes money to improve air quality at ports by easing truck congestion and moving more goods by rail. Security at the ports also would be increased under the proposal.
In addition to providing money to strengthen levees in the Sacramento River basin, the plan includes several billion dollars for a wide range of water projects.
Among them are programs that have been funded by previous bond issues: safe drinking water, watershed management, coastal runoff protection, wastewater treatment and recycling.
In San Diego, Ducheny said, projects such as the San Diego multispecies habitat plan and the San Diego River Conservancy should be able to successfully compete for funding.
The plan includes $2.4 billion for affordable housing, some targeted for urban areas served by light rail to reduce congestion. Ducheny said San Diego would be a good candidate for these funds.
The affordable-housing money also would be used for what is sometimes called “urban in-fill,” units that are built in existing residential areas to reduce sprawl and traffic congestion.
Schwarzenegger originally proposed a sweeping plan to spend $222 billion on public works during the next decade: $68 billion in bonds, $95 billion from existing sources of revenue and $59 billion from new sources.
The new revenue included attempts to get more federal funds and using private-sector investments for toll roads and other projects. How much of that part of the governor's proposal remains in the compromise plan was not known.
“People in every area, every corner of this state benefit from this bond,” Núñez said. “My hope again is that the final details . . . don't hold up the bond.”
Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, said the transportation part of the plan includes money for trade corridors that could go to improving traffic flow at the U.S.-Mexico border and access to the San Diego port.
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Sounds like we are getting ready to spend a whole lot of money to make it easier for illegal Mexicans to live in California and to do business here back and forth across the border...and toll roads? More taxation? And how does the concept of "economic growth" come out of more debt and taxation? IMHO, just more pandering and liberal spending insanity.
Senate Republicans last night shot down the Democrat/Schwarzenegger bond deal based on principled arguments against bonding, not reservoirs.
Republican Assemblymen are described as resiting approval because of surface storage but those descriptions are coming from a made, gang member, Kevin McCarthy, and aren't the core issue. The core issue is huge indebtedness, proposed by the Schwarzenegger/Democrats that elected Republican Assemblymen won't swallow. Neither Keene nor McCarthy's replacement Plescia, not yet made men, has offered their opinions for the sake of the party.
Cheap water means more farm jobs, low income housing, and democrat votes.
Could expensive water dry up illegal aliens? Or will that just make them smell?
Wont matter if they have have water or not, word has it that Arnold has come to an agreement with the Democrats on the bond plan that contains bond money for illegal farm workers therefore they are here to stay regardless.
So when the water goes dry and when the grapes dry to raisins, the illegal temporary black market guest workers will be applying for the brain surgeon , rocket scientist, port manager jobs that US citizens wont do, because the the US citizens won't want to work in a work environment were they cant speak the language, and will be taxed at a higher rate compared to the illegals whom wont be paying any taxes.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
is the only sure thing that stops spenders from spending. It's the cheapest method ever discovered to reign in out of control shoppers. Arnold tried to stop the spending at the ballot box and failed. This is a scorched earth strategy, is the only viable plan left. We might as well try to build some lasting structures with our money rather than let the socialists have at it.
This is a scorched earth strategy, is the only viable plan left. We might as well try to build some lasting structures with our money rather than let the socialists have at it.
Arnold has collaborated on the legislation that (thankfully) got defeated last night.
Lasting structures? This plan is a socialists dream! Farmworker housing, billions for parks and conservancies, open space, subsidies to brownfields and other landholders and developers, enhancement of wetlands, etc. etc. etc. This is far from spending on "lasting structures" or anything that much resembles what one would consider "infrastructure". Read this thread:
CA: Bond includes 'green' money - Environmental causes large part of spending planOr read the legislation itself:
AB 134
A maddening, terrifying, insane look at how Sacramento lurches forward in the quest to indebt our children
Back in the first week of January, Governor Schwarzenegger called for selling $67 billion in bonds over 10 years to build roads, levees, schools, courthouses, and jails.
For two months, little happened in the way of negotiations with the governor and the two Democrat leaders in the Capitol, Sen. Perata and Speaker Núñez.
The constitutional process to approve a bond in California is fairly straightforward. The legislature has to approve it by a two-thirds vote in both houses before sending it to the people who must vote on it. Naturally, there is a deadline to deal with in that voter pamphlets must be prepared by the Secretary of State, then mailed out, so that you’ll know what you’ll be voting on in June. If only I, as a lawmaker, might know what I will be voting on this Sunday!
So, with months to work on the bonds, here’s what the ugly Sacramento endgame looks like (even you chronic procrastinators will wince).
Yesterday, Thursday, we were to have session at 9:30 am to vote on the bond package. Session was delayed until 10:30. Then delayed again until 1 pm. Then delayed to 4 pm. Then again until 6 pm. At 6 we show up to the Republican caucus and discover that negotiations are still ongoing, and that we will go home, subject to recall to Sacramento on a four hour notice with a likely vote on Sunday.
Of course, if we do vote on Sunday, none of us on the Republican side will have actually read the bills on which we will be voting as they are negotiated between the governor and Democrats with the Republicans viewed as a kind of annoying little brother who keeps interrupting the discussion.
So, what are rumored to be in the bonds? About $48 billion of spending on roads, levees, schools, courthouses, and jails plus the following: parks, subsidized housing, buses, light rail, transit security, port security, a bunch of environmental studies, and the like. In short, a pork-laden grab-bag of debt that only a politician and a lobbyist could love. In fact, of the $48 billion, about $8 billion could be classified as ongoing program expenses (like the money for buses and transit security) more appropriately paid for out of the General Fund than with borrowed money. Add that amount to our roughly $6 billion structural deficit and our newly discovered $6 billion per year public employee pension deficit, and you have about $20 billion in new debt this year alone just to pay for government – that’s $540 more credit card debt for each one of the 37 million people in the state.
Which, speaking of credit cards, reminds me of how I’ll approach this huge mess in the making. I’m thinking of David Spade in the Capital One Credit Cards commercials, “1001 Ways to Say No.”
“What’s your answer to the bonds Assemblyman DeVore?”
“No.”
“But what if…”
“Uh… No.”
“Or…”
“Let me see… No.”
Helluva way to run a government, eh?
All the best,
Chuck DeVore, State Assemblyman, 70th District
www.ChuckDeVore.com
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