SACRAMENTO — It is hard to decide which outcome to root for in the current Capitol water war: gridlock or grand compromise.
At times like this, one is reminded of that old line: "No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, October 09, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction
Capitol Journal: In some copies of Monday's Orange County edition, George Skelton's Capitol Journal column was incomplete. The complete column can be found on B7 of today's California section in the Orange County edition and at latimes.com/skelton.
Mark Twain or Will Rogers usually is credited with that observation, but it was actually popularized by a New York judge, Gideon J. Tucker, in an 1866 estate case.
It's timely now because the Legislature is in a snail-paced special session trying to negotiate an epic plan to provide more water storage and repair the leaky, creaky Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Nobody's life or liberty is threatened, but plenty of property and assets are -- including taxes that would be collected to pay off the added state debt.
The biggest danger, however, is to the rare opportunity to patch and expand California's rotting waterworks. If the lawmakers act rashly, they could blow it politically and policy-wise. Their plan might not sell to voters or, if it does, not be the right fix for the sinking water system. That could set the state back many years.
State Senate Leader Don Perata (D-Oakland) and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are determined to place a multibillion-dollar water bond issue on the Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot. But they're up against an Oct. 16 secretary of state's deadline for working out a legislative deal.
It's not clear what their rush is. There also will be two other statewide elections next year, in June and November.
"We don't do our best work when we're rushed," says Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis), who heads the Assembly water committee. "If we're going to ask the people of California to invest money, we ought to make certain it's a good investment.
"I'm very skeptical we can do this in the next week. Perhaps we could do it in a couple of months."
However, water is such a contentious issue -- fought over by fiercely competing, righteous interests and regulated by turf-protecting government entities -- that maybe Capitol politicians should be encouraged to agree on whatever they can, even if it means taking only an incremental step toward fixing the fragile state water system.
Sen. Michael Machado (D-Linden), a lifelong San Joaquin County farmer and the Senate's water expert, who supports Perata's bond proposal, has grown cynical about the ability of all the diverse factions to work cohesively for the common good.
