With about 24 hours left in the Legislature's current session, deals on the two main issues for which Arnold is demanding resolutions, water and prisons, do not seem likely. On the water issues:
The water conference committee signed off last night on a five-bill package to address Delta conservation and water supply issues.
The conference report got the eight signatures needed to pass out of the committee in time for a floor vote, but none of the Republicans on the panel were on board with the plan.
Sen. Dave Cogdill, the lead Republican in the negotiations, called the conference report "an unbalanced package of bills that ignores the need for a reliable water supply and only caters to the interests of extreme environmentalists." (CapAltert 9/10/09)
And that doesn't even bring in the issue of how to pay for this stuff. Pretty much everybody is shying away from general obligation bonds, as our credit rating these days pretty much sucks and it is really expensive to borrow money. May folks have been pushing the idea of revenue bonds, but it isn't clear that we can really raise enough money to pay for everything that is on the table right now.
The prison reform issue isn't really doing any better as the Assembly plan doesn't have enough cost savings (or enough spine) and the Senate seems reluctant to pull the trigger on a half measure. There may be something sort of development on prisons, but it would have to be very, very soon.
So, as Ernie Banks said, "It's a beautiful day for a ballgame... Let's play two!" |
