SACRAMENTO Calif. (Reuters) - California
Democrats scrambled on Tuesday to win Republican support for a plan to
improve water supplies that has been mired in regional and party
politics for a year, even as the state suffers from a three-year drought
that shows no sign of ending.
A day after voting for a two-day extension to put a proposal on
November's ballot to pay for reservoirs and other projects by
selling bonds, Democratic lawmakers enlisted the support and
negotiating clout of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, a fiscal
moderate who said previous plans were too expensive.
"We're very close," said Brown after meeting with Republican leaders
who want more reservoirs and Democratic holdouts who say damming
rivers and flooding canyons to build them is damaging to the
environment. "There's been a lot of compromise."
California is in the throes of a devastating drought that is
expected to cost its economy $2.2 billion in lost crops, jobs and
other damage.
Lawmakers from both parties say this may be the only year that
tax-averse voters, aware of the drought's impact, would be willing
to pay for new water projects, yet they continue to fight over which
ones to include.
An $11 billion plan negotiated under Republican former governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 is set to go before voters in
November, but Democrats, who now control both houses of the
legislature and all statewide elected offices, say it is too
expensive and full of pork.
Brown has said he would campaign against it, and polls show little
public support. Democrats who represent the area around the fragile
San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta say some of the projects included
in it would damage vital habitat for endangered animals and risk
water supplies.
The legislature has been working since last summer to develop a
cheaper alternative, but a two-thirds majority vote is required
before such a measure can be placed on the ballot - and Democrats
are short two votes in the state Senate thanks to a series of
scandals that sidelined three of their members.
Peter De Marco, a spokesman for senate Republican leader Bob Huff,
said the main sticking point is the amount of money to be spent on
water storage, including reservoirs.
"It's a critical piece for California that has been neglected for a
long time," De Marco said. Republican leaders planned to continue
negotiating with the Brown administration Tuesday afternoon, he
said.
The latest version of the bond has $2.5 billion for such projects,
but Republicans have held out for $3 billion, the amount in the
Schwarzenegger proposal. Some Republicans also want the plan to
include an environmental project that would later allow the state to
build tunnels or canals to carry water to the Central Valley, a
major farming area that relies on irrigation.
