CA: Reservoir debate emerges as sticking point in bond negotiations

AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 3/14/06 | Steve Lawrence - ap

[NormsRevenge]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders struggled Tuesday to agree on a record-setting public works bond package that could reach the June ballot, with what one lawmaker called "the diabolical politics of water" standing in the way.

But negotiators were working on borrowed time. Last Friday was the secretary of state's official deadline for the Legislature to add proposals to the June 6 ballot, but lawmakers and administration officials said they could still make the ballot if they acted by Tuesday.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, sent a letter Tuesday to Secretary of State Bruce McPherson asking him to declare a firm cutoff date for the June ballot.

"Our negotiations are distracted in part by the lack of clarity on the final date issue," the letter said. "Can our talks lead to a vote on the June ballot or must they be directed toward the November ballot? We, as negotiators, and more importantly, the public, need to know your official position on this issue."

Nunez issued a statement saying he had been unable to reach McPherson, a Republican, by phone, prompting him to hand-deliver his letter to the secretary of state's office.

A spokeswoman for McPherson, Nghia Nguyen Demovic, did not immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Schwarzenegger has made upgrading the state's aging infrastructure his top issue as he prepares to run for a second term.

In January, he proposed a 10-year, $222.6 billion spending plan to fix levees and build more highway lanes, schools, university facilities and reservoirs, among other public works projects.

The plan called for the sale of $68 billion in voter-approved bonds to help pay for the program.

Since then, the Republican governor and legislative leaders have been focusing on a smaller bond package of about $50 billion. But the negotiations have stalled over how to allocate that money and related issues.

Nunez said his staff was trying to determine if there was enough "wiggle room" between Republican and Democratic positions to reach a compromise.

"If we do, we'll try to get there," he said. "If we don't, we'll have to put off our expectations to doing a bond until November."

He said a debate over how much to put in the bond bill for new reservoirs was the main sticking point.

"It's pretty clear that the diabolical politics of water have taken the reins of this debate over," Nunez said. "It's making it very difficult. The demands that the Republicans are putting on this is asking us to do the impossible."

The Assembly canceled a scheduled vote Monday night on a $49.3 billion proposed bond measure that included $500 million for reservoirs and another $500 million for additional underground water storage, said Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Nunez.

Assemblyman Rick Keene, a Chico Republican and the vice chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said the $500 million would provide less than half the cost of a single reservoir and that there were no guarantees the money would be spent.

"It's $500 million to be appropriated at some later date by a two-thirds vote, and the Democrats made it very clear you are never going to get a two-thirds vote," he said.

Schwarzenegger's original public works plan included $1.25 billion in bonds to help fund new reservoirs and relied on local or federal sources to provide additional money.

Five water-storage projects are being studied by the California Bay-Delta Authority, a consortium of agencies overseeing efforts to improve the reliability of California's water supplies and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem.

They include a reservoir in what is now an agricultural valley about 60 miles north of Sacramento and building a dam on the upper San Joaquin River at Temperance Flat. Other projects under consideration would boost the height of Shasta Dam, turn bowl-shaped islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into reservoirs and expand the Los Vaqueros Reservoir in the eastern San Francisco Bay area.

Cost for the five range from $180 million for the smallest increase in the height of Shasta Dam to as much as $2.4 billion for Sites Reservoir in the valley north of Sacramento, which is among the projects most favored by Republicans.

They say California needs the additional water storage as the state's population grows by an estimated 12 million over the next 25 years.

Environmentalists say there are serious problems involved in the reservoir plans under consideration and that an increased emphasis on water conservation would be less costly.

Keene said the reservoir debate was the main issue holding up an agreement, but said there were other sticking points, too. Those include Republican concerns about the size of the bond measure and environmental hurdles that construction projects must clear.

"We've made it very clear we want things built," he said. "We don't want the money allocated and languish for 10 or 12 years. That's not good for California."

[AZRepublican]

"A spokeswoman for McPherson, Nghia Nguyen Demovic..."

Now there is a real genuine American name for ya. /sarcasm

[goldstategop]

My Oscar-nominated Keeper Quote Of The Year

"The demands that the Republicans are putting on this is asking us to do the impossible."

How dare, how dare those Republicans be impossible! ;-)

(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.")