Today, Bloomberg News Service reports that a $2.1
billion tax deficit for October, 2009 threatens to
unravel California's three-month-old budget. Click here
to read the story.
But that doesn't fluster Governor Schwarzenegger and
top legislative leaders who according to Governor
Schwarzenegger's statement yesterday are close to a
deal on a water package. Never mind that the public
has no idea at this point what is in the proposed
legislation or how much it will cost - that this deal in
its latest incarnation has not been seen in print - or
that all Delta legislators have been left out of the
negotiations process.
Instead, Governor Schwarzenegger declared in his
statement regarding a special session on water that
he is ready to:
"To consider and act upon legislation to place a
general obligation bond and, as necessary, a lease
revenue bond on the ballot."
Columnist Mike Fitzgerald from the Record wrote a
terrific column this weekend showing the peripheral
canal project getting bigger by the minute. (Click here to read his column.) Yes,
it's getting bigger and more fantastical in the minds of
canal proponents; never mind the pesky deficit is
growing in size at the same time. After all, it's so easy
to govern say if one ignores reality and manages the
Capitol like a movie set.
And while the Governor and DWR Chief Lester Snow
continue pushing forward the BDCP (also known as
the Big Detrimental Canal Project), water exported
from the Delta is for resale. Click here to see Restore the
Delta's You Tube clip on where Delta water is going
after it leaves the Delta.
As all this water theater plays out in Sacramento with
the Governor in his starring role, thousands of people
in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, many in the
farmworker communities that the Governor likes to
make references to in his speeches, do not have
clean drinking water, despite numerous legislative
efforts, and the passage of previous water bonds. But
that doesn't disturb the Governor. He vetoed AB1242
yesterday - a bill calling for a human right to clean and
affordable drinking water. Clearly, in the Governor's
mind, California's water, part of the public trust, is not
to be managed for equitable human use including the
poor, or for protecting Delta fisheries and family
farming communities, the middle class. It's a
commodity for the profit of a few well off landowners
on the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley.
