As has been anticipated the last couple of days, Governor Brown has declared the three-year long drought in California officially over. With the state’s reservoirs quite full, and the snow pack in the Sierras at 165% of normal, ending the drought declaration is probably a good idea.
Hopefully the readily available supply of water will translate to some reductions in water rationing and perhaps the lowering of costs for end users (one can but hope).
But there is certainly one very bright, positive political aspect to California’s drought being over — it means that it will be harder than ever for the massive $11++ billion water bond package, due to appear on a 2012 ballot near you, to go down in defeat.
The "Water Porkulus" bond package, as I called it when it was being crafted by the legislature a couple of years ago, is literally 3 or 4 times bigger than what is actually needed to responsibly address our state’s water infrastructure issues (it depends on whom you speak, as to exactly how "too big" it is). The process of watching sausage get made is supposedly very gross and disturbing. Those are words that I would use to describe the process of making this bond measure.
There is a term of art called a "Christmas Tree" bond — this is where everyone who can places their favorite spending projects, like ornaments, onto the bond measure. This often gets carried away and buy the time you are done, you have the votes to place the measure on the ballot, as most members or vital constituency groups stick yet another item into the bill. That’s clearly what happened here. I know that on the Republican side, skeptical members were being asked "What do you need in the bond, for your district, to make it an easier vote." One just rolled their eyes when after the Senate passed a roughly $10 billion package, the Assembly then just rolled in another billion in pork (on top of what was already there) and, of course, the Senate just went along with it. Of course Governor Schwarzenegger was ready to sign anything, anxious to say he showed "leadership" on the water issue.
I don’t want to rehash all of the details of this ugly deal that included all kinds of big-government additive regulations to mollify Democrats, as well as all of non-essential pork spending. Suffice it to say that this massive behemoth of spending will likely sink under its own weight, and be defeated by voters. Already it was delayed once from a previous election because of how poorly it was polling. And that was when we had a drought.
The legislature should completely scrap the Water Porkulus, and come back with a modest proposal for water infrastructure needs that makes sense for this state. Especially with alarming reports of the larger and larger percentage of the state’s general fund that is being taken up by bond payments.