While California Dreams: A weekly update on the goings-on in Sacramento

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Key bills and issues we’ve been following during the past week and beyond

By Hannah Beth Jackson

With traveling solons returning home from various parts of the world next week, both Healthcare and Water Policy are two special session topics that are heating up. There are various views on both matters and some new Special Session legislation has been introduced this week.

And, in breaking news, the so-called "Dirty Tricks" initiative to change how California allocates its Electoral College votes appears to be dead, at least for now.

Governor "green" speaks at the United Nations, upstaging the absent President Bush (who held his "own" global warming conference to upstage the U.N.) and gets a chance to sign three major environmental bills. Let's see if he puts his pen where his mouth is.

Public Safety bills on the Governor's desk get support from the former Attorney General.

Special Session - Water Policy - three competing sets of proposals, and an Oct. 16th deadline.

Water, water, water- the issue that makes energy problems in California look small by comparison- moves to the front and center in Sacramento. Assembly Democrats introduced three bills by Assembly Member John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), while the Governor's proposal is carried by Sen. Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto).

Laird's bills include a different approach to dams which are a major part of the Governor's staggering $9 billion plan. Under the Governor's plan, the state would pay up to half of the cost for three dams to the tune of $5.1 billion. Democrats have always been suspicious of this part of the proposal, however under one of Laird's bills, local entities would be required to pay for the bulk of the dams because they are local water projects. This would save the state almost $5 billion. Democrats support conservation, recycling, and groundwater storage to boost water supplies and either oppose dams for environmental reasons or believe local projects should be paid for by local water agencies. For more on this click here to read E. J. Schultz's Sacramento Bee article.

Then there is the entire Delta part of the Governor's offerings. Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director for Restore the Delta criticizes the SB 3xx which is the Governor's water bond (carried by Republican Senators Cogdill and Ackerman, and Republican Assembly Member Villines). SB 3xx would spend $1.9 billion to provide an "alternative conveyance system" by sending the money to water agencies for construction. She says, "The Delta cannot be restored if the Sacramento River is diverted from the Delta." Her organization does support Senator Perata's bill, SB 1002, which would provide $611 million for levee repair, habitat and infrastructure.