Battle Lines Drawn Between Perata and Schwarzenegger on Water Bills in California Special Session

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

This afternoon the Governor announced that he was proposing $9 billion in "comprehensive water infrastructure' spending plan and that it would be contained in two bills--authored by Assembly Republican Leader Michael Villines and Republican Senator Dave Cogdill. Before receiving the Governor's press release, the talk of the town was about a $5 to 6 billion dollar set of bonds.

Neither of these bills announced by the Governor are in print, and there is no indication of whether they are general obligation bonds or revenue bonds. There is no description of them on either the Assembly or Senate Republican sites or that of the Governor's authors.

Senator Perata has the only bill in print in the special session on water--SB 1 XX (also denominated SB2X 1) which he introduced last Friday and which we've already described in some detail in an article on Sunday.

He also has a bill, SB 1002, passed in the regular session that is on the Governor's desk and ready for his signature or veto.

Here are the releases from Perata and the Governor as they contain the latest information as to where we are in the special session on water:

Perata Statement on Governor’s Water Proposal for the Special Session

Senate President pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) released the following statement on the water proposal introduced by the Governor for the legislative special session today:

I applaud the Governor for engaging in the state’s quickly deteriorating water delivery system. I only wish he had provided more direction earlier in the year when the Senate struggled to get a bond bill to his desk, in anticipation of the federal court’s ruling.

Instead, now we have a gun muzzle at our temple; unless we take swift action for immediate relief, the court will effectively cut water as much as 60 percent to millions of California consumers and thousands of businesses.

While we hasten together to write legislation capable of winning two-thirds support in the legislature, there is something the governor can do immediately to respond to need. He can sign SB 1002 which allocates $600 million in voter approved bond money for water investments designed to meet the court’s objections.