Governor Visits Valley to Push Dam Projects: He Launches Campaign for a $4 Billion Bond in Fresno.

By E.J. Schultz, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Mar. 27–A year after he backed off demands for state money for dams, Gov. Schwarzenegger is back to wage battle, saying this year he’s in it to win the water fight he once compared to a “holy war.”

“This is absolutely essential for the state of California because we need more water storage,” he told a crowd of dam supporters Monday at Friant Dam east of Fresno. “You can’t always get everything, and last year I said we’ll be back, so this year we’re back.”

The morning appearance, followed by a later speech at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Fresno, marked the beginning of a weeklong campaign to push a $4 billion water bond Schwarzenegger hopes to put on the 2008 ballot.

In choosing Fresno as the launching point, Schwarzenegger found a sympathetic audience. Valley mayors and growers have long sought state money for water storage. A site upstream of Friant Dam is a likely spot for one of two new dams should the proposal win approval.

But the plan is sure to face an uphill fight in the Legislature. Democrats, who control the Senate and Assembly, favor a combination of conservation and ground-water storage to meet the state’s water needs. Dams cost too much and take too long to build, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said at a recent news conference.

But Schwarzenegger said new dams are needed to supply water to a state whose population is expected to jump 30% in the next 20 years. He also cited global warming, which he said could reduce snowpack.

“That means more floods in the winter and less drinking water in the summer,” he said.

Schwarzenegger got his first taste of California water politics last year when he sought to include money for water storage in a $68 billion public works bond proposal. But he backed off the demand when it nearly doomed the entire package, which eventually was whittled to $37 billion for roads, schools, housing and levees. He later referred to the fight — pitting environmentalists against growers — as a “holy war.”

He unveiled this year’s water proposal during his State of the State speech in January. But until this week, the governor’s attention has been focused elsewhere — on his health care and prison proposals, for instance.

The governor plans to continue to push the water plan later this week at events in the Sacramento area and in Los Angeles.

In favoring dams, the governor is detouring from the green agenda that marked his political comeback. Environmentalists have long opposed dams, saying more studies are needed to see if dams are worth the public investment.

The governor, in a meeting with The Fresno Bee editorial board Monday, said, “I’m a big admirer of what the environmentalists are trying to accomplish, but we don’t see eye to eye on all those different ideas and [water storage is] one of them where we don’t see eye to eye.”

Schwarzenegger’s water proposal is part of a $43.3 billion “strategic growth package” that also includes money for prisons, courts and schools.

The water plan — contained in a bill written by Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto — totals $5.95 billion, including $4 billion for dams and $500 million for underground storage. The remainder is for environmental restoration, water conservation and improvements to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The plan would be paid for with a $4 billion bond on the 2008 ballot and other bonds that don’t require voter approval.

Under the plan, the borrowing for dams would go forward only if local water users chip in. Specifically, the dam money includes $2 billion in revenue bonds secured by payments from water suppliers that would benefit from the dam.

Left out of the governor’s strategic growth plan is the long-planned high-speed rail project, an omission that some Valley lawmakers have said they would fight.

As envisioned, the rail line would cut through the Central Valley, including Fresno, as it speeds across the state. A $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond is scheduled to be taken up by the voters in 2008, but Schwarzenegger is seeking to remove the bond from the ballot.

The governor, at the editorial board meeting, said he is not against the rail project but would like to see it paid for with private sources.

Under the so-called public-private partnership model, user fees often are used to pay back investments.

“There is a fortune out there in the private sector,” Schwarzenegger said. “They would love to invest in any kind of project.”

The reporter can be reached at eschultz@fresnobee.com or(916) 326-5541.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

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