Governor’s Impotence Revealed As G.O.P. Senators Torpedo Bond Agreement. No Republican Votes For Schwarzenegger-Perata Water P

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

The G.O.P. obstructionists have struck again. A tentative agreement between Democratic leader, Senate Pro Tem Don Perata, and the Governor on a bond issue designed to protect both the San Joaquin Delta and transfers of water South has been blown up by Republicans in the Senate.

The Republican Senators want to add the contentious issue of a peripheral canal to the package. They also want the bond money appropriated “continuously” as opposed to through the budget in the manner of all other appropriations.

Both objections aren’t serious. They are simply another effort to punish the Governor for his neglect of the members of his party.

Petty politics and peevishness submarine important public policy goals – again!

Why not make all appropriations “continuous”? Republicans would oppose that because it would deny them the ability to get publicity by holding up the budget which requires at least two Republican votes in the Senate. They want bond money for storage to be continuously appointed because they fear Democrats would act in the same obstructionist way they act.

But Democrats are not obstructionist.

In 1996, with Speaker Pringle and the Republicans in control of the Assembly, Democrats responsibly added the votes needed to achieve the constitutionally mandated 2/3 without the use of extortion or grandstanding. Democrats acted responsibly as the minority party, biding their time until the next election.

Republicans, by contrast, have consistently attempted to “cash in loser’s tickets at the winner’s window” (in the words of the late Speaker, Jesse Marvin Unruh).

Arguments that the “canal” should be included in the water compromise package are transparently nothing more than grandstanding. Senator Perata is supposed to agree to a proposal that was dissed by the voters of his district 95-5? Perhaps the Democrats should add a codicil that requires use of the bond money to build shelters for homeless undocumented aliens in Newport Beach?