Earmarks fill California water bond

From the Silicon Valley Mercury News:

“An $11.1 billion water bond approved this week by California lawmakers is filled with special interest earmarks that reward legislative districts in nearly every corner of the state, from $20 million for economic development in a rural northern county to $10 million to a University of California climate change institute.

An Associated Press review found dozens of projects that were injected into the bond bill to secure enough votes to get it passed. The projects will add tens of millions of dollars to the interest taxpayers will have to pay on the bond if voters approve it next year.

Many of the projects are only peripherally related to the purpose of the legislative package, which is intended to increase California’s water supply and restore the ecologically fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

For example, $30 million was earmarked to the state Department of Parks and Recreation for grants for watershed education facilities. Another $20 million is set aside for the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, which manages land for recreation and wildlife and is the Los Angeles district represented by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.

In the final days of negotiations, lawmakers in both chambers padded the bond bill with an additional $1.7 billion, despite previous statements by legislative leaders that the state could not afford such a large bond. …”

Read more from the Silicon Valley Mercury News by clicking here.

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