California moves massive water bond vote to 2012 ballot
3 Sep, 2010 By: Ron Hall i-newsSACRAMENTO, CA — Announced in November 2009 with much hoopla by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a $11 billion water bond that was to appear on this November’s ballot has been delayed by two years. The Legislature took the action in August at the urging of the Governor and various farm groups and water districts. They realized that the issue, in the face of state’s $19 billion deficit, had little chance for voter approval. Rather than see the proposal get rejected this year, the bond's backers wrangled enough support (barely) in the state’s Senate and Assembly to tee up the water bond for November ballot in 2012.
When the water legislation was passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor in November 2009 it was hailed as “an historic accomplishment that will dictate water policy in California for decades.” Provisions in the proposal call for water planning, development, restoration and governance for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a groundwater monitoring program, requirements that the state achieve a 20% reduction in urban per capita water use by 2020 and agricultural water plans.
A growing number of the issue’s opponents (and there were many) said it was full of pork and laden with goodies for special interests. Others pointed to its bias toward agriculture, which uses 80% of the water used by humans in California. They claimed that agriculture water use remained basically unaccountable in the measure while urban water use was being tagged with 20% reduction by 2020.
Ultimately, however, the state’s dire economic situation caused lawmakers to remove it from this year’s ballot. They heard the grumbles of voters wondering what other state programs, such as education, would take a back seat to the borrowing costs for the water bond, an annual cost of $800 million a year from the general fund.
Nobody, of course, can guarantee that the state’s economic fortunes will improve prior to 2012 or that public opinion will soften toward the water bond.
What is certain, though, is that California faces incredible challenges in supplying its citizens, its industry and its agriculture with water and also protect fragile eco-systems, such as the 1,000-sq.-mile Delta, a source of fresh water for millions, as California continues growing and developing.
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