Water Bond Aimed at Diverse Programs
SACRAMENTO — Before casting a vote on the $3.4-billion water bond issue on the November ballot, a reasonable voter might ask what California got for the three other water bonds passed in the last six years.
The answer isn't simple. The past bond sales didn't buy a big new dam or reservoir to carry the state safely through drought.
Instead, like cash hurled from a helicopter, the money has landed in hundreds of scattered projects, including no-flush urinals in Pasadena schools, $500 vouchers for coin-laundry owners in San Diego and the planting of native willows along the San Joaquin River.
Proposition 50 promises to be more of the same. Unusual in that it was written by a small group of environmentalists, not hammered out in the Legislature, the measure has nonetheless won the support of much of the state's water industry. Backers call it a necessary mortgage payment on a more drought-resistant, safe and environmentally healthy water system.
Opponents, including the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Taxpayers' Assn., say the latest bond measure once again has plenty of money for preserving land, but not enough for developing new sources of water.
A September poll by the nonprofit Field Institute showed likely voters were almost evenly divided on the measure. But television advertising in support of the bond issue hasn't begun, and the Yes on 50 campaign has the generous support of a handful of developers who stand to benefit from $950 million in bond sales earmarked for purchase and restoration of coastal wetlands.
Donors to a political committee established by the measure's chief backer, the Planning and Conservation League, include the owners of land at such preservation battlegrounds as the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Orange County, the Ballona wetlands in West Los Angeles and the Cargill Inc. salt ponds along San Francisco Bay.
Ending Epic Struggles
For example, Playa Capital Co., builder of a 1,087-acre development near the Ballona wetlands, has donated $830,000 this year to the Planning and Conservation League's Conservation Action Fund. Signal Landmark, which is trying to build houses on the Bolsa Chica mesa, gave $200,000.
Other developers have donated to a separate political committee run by the Trust for Public Land, which helped pay to qualify Proposition 50 for the November ballot. One $25,000 donation came from land speculator Brian A. Sweeney, who seeks to build mansions on a rugged parcel north of Malibu coveted for preservation by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
