[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Items for 1/8/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

January 8, 2008

 

1.  Top Items

 

Budget woes divert water bond; Looming shortfall pushes issue to back burner - Fresno Bee

 

Calif. Senate leader says he will delay his proposed water bond - Associated Press

 

 

Budget woes divert water bond; Looming shortfall pushes issue to back burner

Fresno Bee – 1/7/08

By E.J. Schultz, staff writer

 

SACRAMENTO -- Negotiations on a multibillion-dollar water bond have been put on hold until lawmakers close the state's growing budget gap, legislative leaders said Monday.

 

Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines of Clovis, who has long pushed for state money for dams, said water projects "cannot be a priority" this year. "We have to get our house in order," he said at a news conference previewing the new legislative year. "We have to get fundamentally financially secure."

 

Gov. Schwarzenegger is expected to plead for budget reforms when he delivers his annual State of the State speech today. Aides say he will ask for authority to enact midyear cuts in bad times, while banking surpluses in good years.

Then on Thursday, the governor will unveil his 2008-09 budget plan and is expected to call for across-the-board cuts to help close an anticipated $14 billion shortfall.

 

A new water bond would add more expenses in the form of yearly interest payments, though costs would likely not kick in until several years from now. The state is already on track to pay $7.5 billion a year by 2011-12 to service previously approved infrastructure bonds, according to a recent report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.

 

Lawmakers of both parties agreed that budget talks would consume most of the energy in the Capitol this year. Also, it could prove politically infeasible to seek voter approval of new borrowing while other spending is cut.

 

However, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata left open the possibility of hammering out an agreement on water that could be put before voters in 2010, instead of this year.

 

Last year, lawmakers were unable to find consensus on a $10 billion water bond targeted for the February ballot. Republicans say dams -- including one near Fresno -- are needed to shore up the state's water supplies. Democrats have pushed for ground-water storage and conservation.

 

The stalemate led Democrats and Republicans to launch separate efforts to qualify plans for the November ballot by collecting voter signatures. Perata, D-Oakland, has since put the Democratic initiative on hold.

 

"I still think a legislative solution is possible," he said Monday.

 

The Republican effort is being led by the California Chamber of Commerce and other business and farm groups. The coalition has not begun collecting signatures for the initiative because it still needs final approval from the Secretary of State's Office.

 

"The coalition plans to meet in the future and discuss next steps," said chamber spokeswoman Denise Davis.

 

Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, still wants to get a legislative deal done this year.

 

"Water is too important of an issue to put on the back burner until the Legislature can learn to balance a checkbook," he said in a statement.

 

Schwarzenegger also wants a deal this year, said Aaron McLear, the governor's press secretary.

 

"Solving the budget is the top priority right now," McLear said. "But we cannot allow a difficult budget to halt progress on other state priorities."

 

But there is no doubt that the governor's ambitions are being curtailed by the state's fiscal outlook. The health care plan he negotiated with Assembly Democrats is still stuck in the Senate. Perata wants a better look at the states' financial situation before taking it up. Plans to make this the "year of education," also have been dampened.

 

Valley lawmakers, who returned Monday for the first legislative session of 2008, have pared down legislative goals in anticipation of a tough year.

 

"I think the budget will overshadow most everything," said Assembly Member Juan Arambula, D-Fresno.

 

But there are still bills in the pipeline:

 

Arambula is pushing legislation that would create a task force to help rural communities deal with Jessica's Law, which prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any school or park. Arambula fears the new law will lead to more sex offenders locating in the Valley, which has more wide-open spaces than heavily urbanized areas.

 

Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, plans to revive his package of bills to increase regulations on the lettuce and spinach industry. The bills, aimed at stopping E. coli outbreaks, died in an Assembly committee last year.

 

Assembly Member Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, has a bill to extend the term of a Valley economic task force.

 

The California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, created by the governor via an executive order, is set to expire at the end of this year. Parra's bill would extend the term to Jan. 1, 2020, and put the partnership in state law.

 

Assembly Member Bill Maze, R-Visalia, is pushing legislation that would allow certain companies to get tax credits for hiring children who are exiting the state's foster care system. The companies would have to be located in an "enterprise zone," typically a blighted area targeted for growth.  #

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/306796.html

 

 

Calif. Senate leader says he will delay his proposed water bond

Associated Press – 1/7/07

 

SACRAMENTO—State Senate leader Don Perata on Monday said he will not push a water bond proposal this year because of the state's budget crisis.

 

The Oakland Democrat was promoting a $6.8 billion initiative to fund water recycling, conservation and environmental cleanup. But he said such spending should be delayed now that the state is facing a budget shortfall projected at $14 billion over the next 18 months.

 

Perata also asked the California Chamber of Commerce and farmers to delay their competing $11.7 billion water bond initiative, which they want to put before voters in November.

 

The California Farm Bureau Federation referred calls to the chamber, which had no immediate response to Perata's request.

 

A mild winter in 2007 and a federal court order restricting pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to call for a special legislative session late last year.

 

He wanted lawmakers to create a long-term water plan for storing, moving and conserving water, but Democrats and Republicans failed to agree. Whether to dedicate money to build dams, a key demand of Republicans, was the main sticking point.

 

The breakdown of the talks prompted the Chamber of Commerce and the agriculture industry to start their own petition drive.

 

The $6.8 billion plan promoted by Perata is his and has not had legislative approval.

 

Meanwhile, Perata urged Schwarzenegger to allocate $611 million from three water-related initiatives previously approved by voters: propositions 1E and 84, approved in 2006; and Proposition 13, passed in 2000.

 

Perata wants to use the money for flood control, cleaning up groundwater sources, improving drinking water, protecting the delta and other projects.

 

On Monday, the Senate passed the bill allocating the money on a 23-11, party-line vote, sending it to the Assembly. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year.  #

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7904659?nclick_check=1

####