SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a $9-billion bond package Tuesday that would pay for three new or expanded dams and amount to an unprecedented level of taxpayer financing for water projects.
With drought and court-imposed cutbacks looming, the governor's proposal kick-starts what is expected to be several weeks of intense negotiations with legislators to place a water bond on the Feb. 5 ballot.
Schwarzenegger's insistence upon dam projects in the Bay Area and in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys puts him at odds with most Democratic legislators. They say the state will get more water at lower cost by cleaning up polluted groundwater supplies and recycling and conserving water.
The bond proposal also breaks with historical water development in California, where most major water projects have been financed by the federal government or specific water users -- not by taxpayers at large.
The Republican governor's latest, most detailed proposal involves $3.6 billion more in borrowing than what Senate leader Don Perata, an Oakland Democrat, has proposed in a bond measure of his own. Perata would not preclude local water districts from competing for state money to help build dams in his $5.4-billion proposal, but his plan would not earmark state money for specific dams.
"We're not saying we're not for dams," Perata said, "but what we are saying is: Let the dams compete with other things. This is kind of ironic for me to say instead of the governor: Let the market run its course."
Perata predicted that Schwarzenegger would be forced in negotiations to drop specific dam projects because, he said, Southern California taxpayers -- who would pay the largest share of those costs -- will prefer more cost-effective ways to expand supply.
"He's either going to come our way," Perata said, "or there will be no way."
Last week, the governor declared a special legislative session on water to force legislators to keep working on the issue through their fall break. Some legislative leaders had hoped to strike a deal by Thursday, before at least 19 legislators depart for overseas trips. Or, they say, they will negotiate for at least the next several weeks -- as long as they can before an undetermined deadline for printing a supplemental ballot pamphlet for the Feb. 5 presidential primary election.
