Water Bond on the November 2010 Ballot

In August 2010, the Legislature voted to postpone until 2012 the water bond (Proposition 18) that it had placed on the November 2010 ballot as part of the 2009 Comprehensive Water Package. Governor Schwarzenegger had called for postponing the bond, and the Legislature agreed, wanting to wait for a state budget climate and public opinion more favorable to passage of an $11.14 billion general obligation bond.

The League of Women Voters of California opposed the water bond because it would

• increase dependence on dams and water transfers while shortchanging conservation and other sustainable water sources
• create public bond debt with inadequate public accountability

   

Apart from its impact on the state budget, the water bond includes provisions that would ease planning for a peripheral canal.

Supporters and opponents of the water bond will be making their respective cases to voters in the months until the bond appears on the ballot in 2012.

There is enough water for our growing population, for agriculture, and to restore much of our ecosystems decimated by water transfers. We are that inefficient. We can have it all. We just need the political will to make it happen." - Dorothy Green, Managing Water: Avoiding Crisis in California