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Supporters of a proposed $11 billion water bond say the money is urgently needed to fix California's water supply problems, yet billions of dollars in previous bond money still hasn't been spent, according to the California treasurer. About half of the $20 billion in water and levee improvement bonds passed since 2000 was unspent as of July, according to the State Treasurer's Office most recent report on debt affordability. It is unclear how much of that money is actually available for new efforts, since lawmakers have appropriated billions for specific projects, according to Jason Dickerson, debt service analyst for the...

SAN DIEGO ---- Regional planners are polling San Diego County residents to see if they would support a special "quality of life" tax to fund beach-sand replenishment, open-space purchases, habitat restoration and water-quality programs, an agency official said Thursday. The funding source could come in the form of a sales, property, hotel or rental-car tax, and could appear on the county ballot in 2008, said Rob Rundle, principal planner for the San Diego Association of Governments, the county's regional planning agency. Rundle said results of the telephone poll of 2,000 county registered voters will be reported to the association board...

Welcome to the live thread for the California Primary Election. Polls are open until 8pm tonight. If you are a registered voter, it is your duty to vote and defend your rights and civil liberties, protect your pocketbook, and vote the bums out where applicable. Feel free to discuss issues key to your local area that others may be interested in. Post your polling place experiences if you like. And post numbers as they come in later tonight.

OAKLAND — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appreciates the Republican lieutenant governor nominee's opinion that the infrastructure bonds on next week's ballot are a mistake but believes he's "totally wrong." "If you went with his way of thinking, you would never rebuild California," the governor said Thursday of state Sen. Tom McClintock as he visited the Port of Oakland to stump for the $37 billion bond package. With California's population continuing to swell, "we can't continue waiting; we have to build now," Schwarzenegger said, estimating the state's economy is only "70 percent living up to our potential" because it can't move goods...

SACRAMENTO – A ballot packed with proposals for record state borrowing, five bonds totaling $43 billion, poses a big question for voters on Tuesday: How much debt can the state afford? When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a public-works bond package in January to rebuild California's neglected infrastructure, he wanted to give voters some assurance that the state would not plunge too deeply into debt. “I will propose that the Legislature adopt a debt ceiling that maintains our debt at a prudent level, regardless of the amount of debt authorized,” Schwarzenegger said in his State of the State address. But in...

$7,300. That is approximately what each household in California will be asked to cough up to pay for the $42.6 billion bond package on the ballot November 7th, should it pass. While there is a clear consensus that our infrastructure is in desperate need of repair and expansion there is also a growing cynicism that saddling future generations with $84 billion in bond payments over the next 30 years represents more of the same fiscal irresponsibility we have come to expect from Sacramento. Despite tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending to support these measures, a hearty array of...

Proposition 84 is as misleading in its title as its drafters are shameless in their self-interest and self-dealing: "The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006." A careful reading of the fine print of the initiative reveals that there is no assurance that one dime will be spent on actual flood control (levee construction or repair), and that there are no funds for increasing water supply through dams, reservoirs or other storage. Why, then, you may ask, would the drafters of Proposition 84 label this $5.4 billion bond a "clean...

Standing on a wind-swept hill overlooking the ocean in San Pedro, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stumped Wednesday on behalf of a slate of statewide ballot propositions aimed at cleaning up the coastline, protecting California's supply of drinking water and rebuilding levees and highways to serve a growing population. "We still have a long way to go so that further generations can enjoy all the incredible landscape we have here in our beautiful state," Schwarzenegger told members of the media and others who gathered for the outdoor news conference. The governor, speaking near the Korean Friendship Bell at Angels Gate Park, was...

There are very few absolutes in politics, but let's be clear about this November's election - a vote for any of the proposed bonds, Propositions 1B - 1E and Prop 84, is a vote for the same type of fiscal recklessness that led to the recall of Governor Gray Davis in 2003. Think about it. Since 2003, tax revenues have exploded in California - up $20 billion annually. The Governor's Workers' Compensation reforms are an underappreciated reason for this increase and the economic activity associated with this increase. Unfortunately, the Legislature, Democrats and some Republicans, and the Governor, have spent...

Voters appear to be skeptical about spending more than $37 billion on infrastructure projects, and it may take a big push by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger if the four bond measures on the November ballot are going to pass. Polls show that it may be the sheer size of the bonds -- which are to pay for transportation, housing, education and water projects -- that concerns voters. Television commercials in support of the measures are expected to begin airing today, said Paul Hefner, a spokesman for the bond campaign. "As much as people would like to see improvements in transportation and...

Californians will soon go to the polls to vote on Proposition 84, a $5.4 billion bond to pay for water projects and park land -- the largest such bond in state history. But even as that campaign plays out, questions are arising over whether taxpayers are getting a fair price when state agencies buy land for parks and wildlife. Environmentalists, taxpayer groups and several Bay Area political leaders last week called for new laws to require California agencies to make appraisals public before they buy ranches, forests, wetlands and other property. They argue that this would reduce the risk of...

Let's imagine that a state legislator agreed to place provisions in a bill that would directly benefit a businessman who agreed, in return, to write a substantial check to the legislator's campaign fund. Such a quid pro quo deal would, of course, be illegal bribery that could land both parties in jail. In fact, a number of legislators, legislative aides and lobbyists went to federal prison in the early 1990s after a federal undercover investigation revealed that such pay-to-play arrangements were commonplace in the California Capitol. That investigation was still unfolding in 1988 when two initiative measures were placed on...

We will devote quite a bit of space in the FlashReport in the coming weeks to articulating why the five "big bonds" measures on the November ballot -- Propositions 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 84 -- should all be rejected by California voters. You've heard me make the case over and over if you are a regular reader, but if you are new to this site, I can sum up the main over-arching reasons to reject all of this borrowing in just a few paragraphs: For decades, the liberals who control the state legislature, along with a string of Governors...

Millions of dollars from voter-approved bonds meant for parks, water and wildlife have been vulnerable to waste and misuse because of faulty controls at state agencies, according to a series of recent audits. While agencies say the problems account for only a small fraction of the $10 billion from four environmental bonds voters passed between 2000 and 2002, state Department of Finance auditors have flagged questionable spending on public relations, lobbying and even yoga classes, documents show.In addition, some groups that received grants from the bond funds failed to properly document expenses, claimed unallowable costs and went over budget because...

Reading all the specific earmarks of funds in Proposition 84 set our suspicious journalistic minds to wondering: There are so many organizations slated to get money from this $5.4 billion bond measure, sold as being for water quality and water supply, that it began to look like a cynical "pay to play" initiative, in which those who paid to get the initiative on the ballot get much larger sums to spend once the bonds are sold. Remember "pay to play?" The Planning and Conservation League perfected this technique with 1996's Proposition 204. While writing the ballot measure it sought donations...

Voters may feel deja vu when they ponder Proposition 84 on the Nov. 7 ballot, because like five other bond measures in the last decade, it promises clean water, flood control, better parks and coastal protection. And like the last water bond to go before voters, in 2002, Proposition 84 was written by a Sacramento lobbyist whose clients are land preservation and environmental groups that stand to win public money for pet projects through the measure. Of the $11 billion that Californians have borrowed over the last decade ... less than $1 billion remains. Proposition 84 carries the highest price...

Californians' wariness of new debt is just one problem facing backers SACRAMENTO – After years of criticism about failing to invest in infrastructure, lawmakers now face questions about whether they are trying to do too much. The Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger placed a record $37.3 billion package of public-works bonds on the Nov. 7 ballot for roads, schools, housing and flood control. BIG BONDS The governor and legislative leaders have placed a record bond package on the Nov. 7 ballot: Proposition 1B – $19.9 billion for transportation Proposition 1C – $2.85 billion for housing Proposition 1D – $10.4 billion...

The cast of characters at Monday's press conference was unusual, to say the least. The participants represented each of the major factions in last year's special election: the drug companies, big-business Schwarzenegger allies and unions. But this time they were all on the same side. They all opposed Proposition 89, which would create publicly financed campaigns in California. "It's a murderers' row of political spenders in California," says Common Cause's Ned Wigglesworth, who supports Proposition 89. If, as the saying goes, politics makes for strange bedfellows, then California's 2006 elections are one giant slumber party. Held in the twelfth-floor suite...

Public works bonds flounder Big spenders, other woes threaten support for infrastructure SACRAMENTO — Public-works bond supporters fear they won't have the cash to sell voters on costly infrastructure improvements because monied oil and tobacco firms fighting propositions are inflating the political television ad market. At the same time, other problems are piling up — uneven support based on regional concerns, awkward politics, the sheer size of the multibillion-dollar bond total, and disclosures that much of the money for transportation would not go directly to easing traffic congestion. "It's going to be difficult to have a voice to be heard...

Environmental groups, lured by the prospect of more than $4 billion for public-transit projects, are backing away from opposing the massive transportation bond on the November ballot. The environmentalists also are daunted by the nearly $7 million in campaign funds amassed by the bond's supporters. Over the weekend, the 75-delegate board of the Sierra Club of California decided against opposing the $19.95 billion bond package, which includes the money for public transit and $14 billion for road construction, plus other projects. Bill Allayaud, the group's legislative director, said Northern California members pushed to fight the bond, while many Southern California...