Posted by Jon Fleischman at 12:00 am on Nov 26, 2007 Comments Off on “Big 5” meet today – But can differences on water bond proposals be worked out?
Last Wednesday, Governor Schwarzenegger called for a meeting of
the "Big 5" (Perata/Ackerman/Nunez/Villines/himself) to take place
this afternoon… The topic — water bonds. Specifically,
the Governor wants to see if he can work out differences between
Democrats and Republicans that have thus-far kept an agreement from
being reached.
The dynamics to
put together a water deal are interesting. On the Republican
side, to get a deal, you have to be able to get enough votes in an
environment where the state’s fiscal crisis makes a vote to place
another big bond deal on the ballot a tough vote (it’s hard enough
to get GOP votes for bonds when the fiscal situation is
rosy). That said, everyone acknowledges we have a water
storage problem that needs attention. On the Democrat side,
where normally everyone lines up (like a cattle call) whenever
there are bonds discussed (Democrats are genetically wired to
embrace spending increases), there is significant push-back from
the eco-nuts who… Read More