Parks-water bond closer to ballot

By Paul Rogers, Mercury News
Thursday, April 27, 2006

A coalition of 11 leading environmental groups has turned in nearly double the number of signatures needed to qualify the largest parks and water bond in state history for the November ballot.

Backers of the proposed measure submitted 632,000 signatures to elections officials on Friday. Under state law, they need signatures of 373,000 registered voters to qualify.

The measure would raise $5.4 billion to shore up aging levees in San Francisco Bay's delta, build new drinking water treatment plants, fund flood control, restore salmon runs and purchase new parks from Monterey Bay to Lake Tahoe to Los Angeles. Roughly half would fund parks and half water projects. None is for building new dams.

Supporters, who raised $1.4 million to collect signatures, have said they wanted to qualify the measure in case Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers failed to agree on a massive bond package for roads, schools, water and parks.

So far, those talks have stalled in Sacramento over political differences.

``We had a Plan B, and now we're having to execute on Plan B,'' said Rachel Dinno, government affairs director for the Trust for Public Land, one of the groups pushing the measure.

The environmental coalition is composed of deep-pocketed land trusts and other organizations that campaigned to win passage of the last parks and water bonds, Propositions 40 and 50, in 2002. It includes the Nature Conservancy, California Audubon Society, Save-the-Redwoods League, Peninsula Open Space Trust and Big Sur Land Trust.

Because California's population is growing by more than 500,000 people every year, -- mostly because of immigration -- the groups contend that the state must preserve beaches, forests, rivers and streams before they are lost to sprawl.

``Clean air and water are precious resources and critical to our quality of life,'' said Julie Benson, a spokeswoman for the Nature Conservancy. ``This bond measure will provide funding to protect our coastlines, our streams, mountains and deserts and forests, all of which also are critical to the clean water we drink.''

Critics call the measure a freelance effort that should have been included in a more coordinated statewide plan for spending, and say it essentially uses up bonding authority -- room on the state's credit card -- that could be used for roads and schools.

``Parks are great and we do need work on our water system and levees, but you hate to see a group of special interests take things in their own hands,'' said Ron Roach, a spokesman for the California Taxpayer's Association, in Sacramento. ``They are saying, `We'll get ours and to heck with everybody else.' ''

Still unclear is what happens if Schwarzenegger and lawmakers come to an agreement. Recently they have said they are negotiating a $30 billion bond measure that would include roads, schools and levees, without much for parks.

It is expected that the Secretary of State's Office will take about a month to verify the signatures, and if the environmentalists' measure qualifies, it cannot be removed from the ballot.

Will environmentalists ask voters to defeat it if a more comprehensive bond also makes the ballot?

``We're not there yet. It's a hypothetical,'' said Benson.

The effort reflects the breakdown in Sacramento, said pollster Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute in San Francisco. ``There's a vacuum, and in the absence of a measure from the Legislature and governor, it provides an opportunity for interest groups to fill that vacuum.''

Contact Paul Rogers at progers@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5045.

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