Excellent overview.
CAPITOL JOURNAL
California's fragile water system is too important to risk on slapdash fixes
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
October 8, 2007
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."
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.
