Free Republic

SACRAMENTO – Support for a record $37.3 billion public-works bond package placed on the Nov. 7 ballot by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature is slipping as Republicans switch to opposition, according to a new Field Poll. Bond measures for transportation, schools and flood control still have leads, but a housing bond is trailing. A separate $5.4 billion water and parks bond, placed on the ballot by gathering signatures, also has a lead. After months of negotiations, the governor and the Legislature reached a bipartisan agreement on a massive bond package intended to rebuild California's neglected infrastructure and prepare for...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped by a Kern County highway junction Tuesday to promote what he called a "historic" $37 billion bond package for education, housing, levee repair and transportation. State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, left, joins in with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall, right, along Highway 99 and Highway 65 gaining support for an infrastructure bond on the November ballot. The program calls for $1 billion in improvements to Highway 99. The bond package, passed by the state Legislature Friday, needs only to be signed by the governor to be put on the November 2006 ballot....

Mr. President: Let me begin by placing these bonds in perspective, and since Pat Brown’s administration is being looked back upon with nostalgia by politicians in both parties, let’s compare his program to the one now before us. We all agree that from 1959 to 1967, Pat Brown presided over the most breathtaking period of public works construction in California’s history. During those years, we built the finest highway system in the world, one of the largest water projects in history, and the foremost university system in the country. At a time when the population grew twice as fast as...