CA: Senate closes in on bond ballot package - Lawmakers hope to put measures in November election

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | May 3, 2006 | Greg Lucas

[calcowgirl]

Lawmakers may vote this week on a bond package of more than $35 billion to relieve highway congestion, build new schools and shore up the state's deteriorating levees.

A Senate vote on four public works bonds, which also includes money for emergency preparedness and affordable housing, could come Thursday. If the measures are approved by both houses of the Legislature, voters would have their say on the borrowing program in November.

Sources familiar with the closed-door negotiations say there is general agreement on the shape of the package and the size of the bonds. Lawmakers are trying to win agreement on the bond package before May 12, when the Republican governor introduces his revised budget and the Legislature focuses on reviewing the document.

The largest of the bonds, at more than $18 billion, is for transportation. Of that, $4.5 billion is targeted for transit improvements, including $400 million for an intercity rail system.

Another $4 billion is for a new program to combat highway congestion. The idea is to have transportation agencies work cooperatively to improve traffic flow in an entire corridor, not just within their individual jurisdictions.

Among the projects paid for in the more than $6 billion emergency preparedness bond are repairs to the state's 6,000 miles of levees and other flood control protections.

Public schools, community colleges, state universities and the University of California would divide up $10 billion for construction, rehabilitation and modernization projects on their campuses.

A fourth bond of roughly $1.5 billion would promote urban housing development and the building of homes near transit stations. It also replenishes the nearly empty coffers of a variety of state housing programs for the homeless and poorer families.

[calcowgirl]

http://www.newwestnotes.com/infrastructure-big-bonds-deal-said-imminent/

A legislative deal to place the big infrastructure bonds package on California’s November ballot is said to be imminent. The “Fab Four” Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate and Assembly have been negotiating on and off since March 30th and are expected to make an announcement today.

A late-starting drive by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to place some version of his Big Bang Bonds infrastructure package on the June ballot went through several permutations during a dramatic round of serial negotiations between the former action superstar and various legislative leaders before ultimately failing on March 15. The governor then urged legislative leaders in a “Big Five” meeting to go forth and make a deal among themselves. On March 30, they met in Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata’s office on that and made real progress. But their self-imposed April 6 deadline, to have a deal in hand before the Legislature’s Easter break, came and went. With the need to finally reach a deal before the governor’s budgetary “May revise,” the leaders and their staffs have been meeting since then.

The package which failed in March had turned into a “Christmas tree,” as one Republican put it, a $50 billion contraption loaded with projects that few members had had the opportunity to think through.

The new version, said by informed sources to be in the $30 billion range, features a more focused approach to a bonds package for November, including levee repair and flood management, school construction and modernization, and transportation projects. Other late emerging items in the failed package for June, such as dams and parks, are reportedly de-emphasized. Dams are a problem for Democrats, parks are a problem for Republicans.

With today’s expected announcement, and an anticipated vote in the Legislature on Thursday, Schwarzenegger may get a needed win even though the inside work has been mostly accomplished by legislators, as he suggested to them when his March drive fell short. How that would affect the governor’s race is unclear.

Treasurer Phil Angelides, the erstwhile longtime Democratic frontrunner positioned as “the anti-Arnold,” has always wanted any infrastructure bonds package on the June ballot. He is loathe to support anything Schwarzenegger is supporting. The new Democratic frontrunner, however, Controller Steve Westly, worked with Schwarzenegger along with most Democrats on the deficit recovery bonds package, Propositions 57 and 58, two years ago. He said he didn’t care which ballot the infrastructure bonds are on.

[roverman2K6]

Just digging deeper to pay for all the aliens

[jocko12]

Just vote NO on this package.Cut the pork and you will have alot of money.