As Conservatives play games with the former President's legacy, what would Ronald Reagan do in today's California?
I probably wouldn't have known it was "Reagan Day" but for the helpful tweets of @GeorgeRunner. The former legislator and current member of the Board of Equalization isn't really much of a tweeter, but on occasion he gives us such helpful words as "Happy Reagan Day!" after a few weeks of silence other than an announcement of his "e-newsletter." (By the way, if you call it an "e-newsletter," you are doing it wrong.)
Anyway, I thought I would take a moment to remind Mr. Runner and his #tcot friends about a few facts of the Gipper's tenure here in California. In a blog post, Bruce Bartlett, a Reagan domestic policy adviser, points out some of the false tax mythology:
Reagan's record on raising taxes began almost the moment he entered politics. Elected governor of California in 1966, he inherited a large budget deficit from his predecessor, Pat Brown. Although a conservative, dedicated to shrinking government, Reagan nevertheless found the magnitude of spending cuts that would have been necessary in 1967 to be beyond reach. This led him to endorse a $1 billion per year tax increase, equivalent to a $17 billion tax increase today - an enormous sum equal to a third of state revenues at that time. Journalist Lou Cannon recounts the circumstances:
"No amount of budget reductions, even if they had been politically palatable, could have balanced California's budget in 1967. The cornerstone of Governor Reagan's economic program was not the ballyhooed budget reductions but a sweeping tax package four times larger than the previous record California tax increase obtained by Governor Brown in 1959. Reagan's proposal had the distinction of being the largest tax hike ever proposed by any governor in the history of the United States."1] ([CG&G Feb 2011)
Let's stop with all the beatification and think about what really happened 45 years ago, and what is happening now. Like Reagan, Gov. Brown inherited a big deficit from his predecessor. Schwarzenegger's mish-mash of policies left the state without direction and with a huge deficit to show for it. Brown the Younger in his third time has a similarly daunting challenge as he did in 1978 after Prop 13 and as Reagan did in 1978. And like Reagan, he understands the impracticality of a cuts-only budget solution. And the tax increases that Brown is proposing today is less than half of the Reagan 1967 tax increases.
Runner and his fellow Republicans need to really take a deep look about their presidential saint and how he was able to objectively look at a situation and be more than ideologically dogmatic. Perhaps then we could really govern the state, and the GOP could return to relevance.
While tax season is gearing up, the state government is now running low on cash reserves. Controller John Chiang announced today that without payment delays and other tactics, the state will run out of cash in March:
California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not take swift action to find $3.3 billion through payment delays and borrowing, according to a letter state Controller John Chiang sent to state lawmakers today.
The announcement is surprising since lawmakers previously believed the state had enough cash to last through the fiscal year that ends in June.
But Chiang said additional cash management solutions are needed because state tax revenues are $2.6 billion less than what Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers assumed in their optimistic budget last year. Meanwhile, Chiang said, the state is spending $2.6 billion more than state leaders planned on. (SacBee)
To some extent this happens every year. Last year we had to borrow $10B to tide us over until tax revenues came in. And heck, Chiang thinks this year will only be $5.4billion. The world is getting better, hooray.
Unfortunately, with the continuing high demands on state services, this is really to be expected. And, Chiang, as he has always done, will have to find a way to balance the state's checkbook. Fun job, isn't it?
While Brown works to cobble together a centrist coalition, the corpse of Howard Jarvis speaks.
by Brian Leubitz
Jerry Brown is putting together quite the interesting coalition for his tax revenue measure. He's got some labor support, of course, but he's been claiming support from some large companies that usually go by "Big" and followed by the name of some industry. He's got some Big Oil, some Big Healthcare, yada, yada.
Hearing this, the corpse of Howard Jarvis was none too pleased. So, they've gone ahead and begged their Big Business friends to resist Jerry Brown's "cajoling."
"We know that Governor Brown, just through the power of his office alone, can cajole and perhaps even threaten vulnerable businesses," the groups said in an open letter. "It is therefore not lost on us that, under certain circumstances, modest support to help the governor place his measure on the ballot might be viewed a lesser of two evils or, more likely, as an insurance payment. However, on behalf of citizen taxpayers and the small business community, we appeal to your sense of doing what is right for all of California." (SacBee)
This really is quite remarkable. Though HJTA didn't exactly get along with Gov. Schwarzenegger, they never really went this far with him. By this far, I mean insinuating that Brown is threatening companies in order to solicit funding for his revenue measure. Not that Arnold ever did that, because, special interests had no power on him. He could resist them with his massive musculature. Until he couldn't.
But this is more a sign of desperation than anything else. If Brown is able to pull significant resources and support from some of the traditional funders of anti-tax campaign, it will be an exceedingly difficult fall campaign for HJTA and its allies. Because you know you are doing well when you try to quote Benjamin Franklin about hanging together or hanging separately. (I say try because it is quite possible that Franklin didn't actually come up with the phrase.) The quote is even more out of touch considering the desperate state of many of Californians most needy who have been devastated by the continuous cuts to services.
California's budget crisis has inflicted an enormous amount of suffering on millions of California families. But its worst victims are likely to be the hundreds of thousands of animals that enter the state's shelters every year.
According to recent media reports, Gov. Jerry Brown is planning to propose a repeal of key provisions of a 1998 law written by legendary political activist and former State Sen. Tom Hayden to protect shelter animals in California from premature euthanasia and increase their chances for adoption.
The Governor's line was pretty much as expected. He is planning on making some rather grievous cuts, but feels that we need some revenues to balance out the system. He promoted his measure and spoke of the temporary nature of the increases. I would think that temporary is a word that you will be hearing many times as we head to November.
2) HSR
Governor Brown has always been a supporter of HSR, and the recent troubles have done nothing to dissuade him that now is the right time to start building. The state will be putting up $2B for the first segment, which the Governor calls a good deal no matter what else is built. However, he went through the old quote book to come up with some good fodder for why we need HSR:
Critics of the high-speed rail project abound as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed. During the 1930's, The Central Valley Water Project was called a "fantastic dream" that "will not work." The Master Plan for the Interstate Highway System in 1939 was derided as "new Deal jitterbug economics." In 1966, then Mayor Johnson of Berkeley called BART a "billion dollar potential fiasco." Similarly, the Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical and Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the Suez Canal: "totally impossible to be carried out." The critics were wrong then and they're wrong now.
3) Education
Brown has been something of critic recently of the overabundant testing scheme in place under NCLB. Today was no different:
In California we have detailed state standards and lots of tests. Unfortunately, the resulting data is not provided until after the school year is over. Even today, the ranking of schools based on tests taken in April and May of 2011 is not available. I believe it is time to reduce the number of tests and get the results to teachers, principals and superintendents in weeks, not months. With timely data, principals and superintendents can better mentor and guide teachers as well as make sound evaluations of their performance. I also believe we need a qualitative system of assessments, such as a site visitation program where each classroom is visited, observed and evaluated. I will work with the State Board of Education to develop this proposal.
We'll see what becomes of this, but reducing testing won't make the Arne Duncan and the Dept of Education happy. However, it is the right choice for California. We spend too much time teaching to tests in what is becoming an ever-shorter school year.
You'll be able to watch a replay of the speech soon, I'll post a link to that when I get it.
First, let me apologize for not "going dark" today, but since the state of the state is today, I hope the "Stop Censorship" logo on the front page will clearly state my opposition to SOPA/PIPA. Hey, if it works for Google, right?
Anyway, in a few minutes, the Governor will be giving his state of the state speech. The Republicans have already "responded" to the Speech on the intertubes, but apparently they put those behind a password until the speech to complete the illusion or something. Not to defend them on this, but to most Capitol watchers, the meat of the speech is not much of a mystery.
The governor will outline how the economy of the state is improving, which it is, but at a rate that has not kept up with the state's demand for services from an already slashed budget. In order to combat that, he is going to ask the people of California to approve his revenue measure that will temporarily increase the sales tax by half a cent and levy a higher tax on upper income earners.
His budget already takes this measure into account, basically providing two alternatives. One that attempts to preserve K12 funding while still continuing the slash and burn of our social safety net. The other budget, which assumes no additional revenue, cuts billions of dollars from K12 and would likely mean big teacher layoffs and a still shorter school year.
Dan Schnur and other Republicans are calling this a ransom note from the Governor. But as Brown said, that's where the money is. If we don't have money, we can't pay for education. The facts are there, we need additional revenue.
Decision of Nicholas Berggruen's good government committee means one less possible revenue measure
This morning, CalBuzz released polling data showing the revenue measure of the Think Long committee to be trailing two other measures. CalBuzz posited that they would probably just go along with Brown's when push comes to shove. And, well, I guess the push came quickly, as this afternoon they just announced that they won't be pursuing their measure for the time being.
Therefore, we have decided to proceed as follows:
1) Continue communicating the necessity and benefits of the Tax and Revenue Reform Plan and engage a diverse range of stakeholders, with the goal of releasing draft ballot-measure language for comprehensive public and fiscal review during 2012, for the purpose of filing the strongest-possible measure for the November 2014 ballot.
2) In the meantime, a high-turnout election is a terrible thing to waste. California voters deserve the opportunity in 2012 to begin the long process of reforming state government. Therefore, in the coming days, we will be announcing our intention to partner with other organizations by generously supporting one or more reform measures that have already been filed for the 2012 elections, consistent with our Blueprint.
My guess would be that Berggruen will write a check to Brown's campaign and then participate in the gentle nudging of the other measures to the side.
New Poll shows Millionaire tax fares best, while Brown is forced to re-file initiative
by Brian Leubitz
Not an entirely good news day for Jerry Brown's attempt to get some revenue in the system. First, he is forced to refile his measure because of drafting errors:
Gov. Jerry Brown is taking a mulligan, tripped up by a typographical error and forced to re-file his ballot initiative to raise taxes.
The Democratic governor on Friday filed paperwork with the state for "The Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012- ver. 2." The measure is identical to one Brown filed in December, the governor said in a filing with the attorney general's office, "except that we have corrected a typographical error that resulted in two numbers being transposed."(SacBee)
While this is a bit of annoyance for his efforts to get the measure onto the signature gathering process, his team has allowed plenty of time. I can't imagine there will be any major issues caused by the re-filing.
The other big news comes from a leaked poll from the center-right Think Long Committee (funded by rich dude Nicholas Berggruen). The results of a seemingly well-considered scientific poll, just published by CalBuzz, show that the CFT/Courage Campaign "Millionaire's Tax" leads the pack at a 70/30 split. Brown's package is ahead by 62-37, and Molly Munger's taxes for education just above water at 51-45. Think Long's own proposal to extend the sales tax to service was ahead 57-30.
I would have to agree with the Buzzers sentiment that Think Long would probably defer to Brown eventually, especially armed with these numbers. As I mentioned before about Molly Munger, she is a bit of a wild card. Whether she intends to move forward on her income tax increase for education will play an important role in the fall campaign for these measures.
The CFT/Courage Campaign measure has some broad grassroots support, and has received some positive media attention. However, whether the progressive coalition can come up with enough money to get it on the ballot is an open question.
Restore the Delta is challenging the accuracy and value of the Public Policy Institute's controversial "report" on the Delta, "Transitions for the Delta Economy," funded by the Stephen Bechtel Foundation, Resources Legacy Fund and David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
In the report's summary, the Public Policy Institute (PPIC) proclaimed, "Enormous changes-from natural forces to management decisions-are coming to California's fragile Delta region and will have broad effects on its residents. This report finds that in the first half of this century, the Delta as a whole is likely to experience a loss of 1 percent of economic activity as a result of these changes. It also identifies planning priorities for managing the Delta's future."
After reviewing the report, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta (http://restorethedelta.org), commented, "It is disheartening that the report fails to fully and properly analyze Delta water quality, current project proposals, and the real Delta economy."
Barrigan-Parrilla emphasized that the PPIC report assumes that the new "dual conveyance" system, more commonly known to Californians as the peripheral canal/tunnel, will only divert 4.9 million acre feet of Delta water, despite the reality that water contractors will have difficulty justifying the sale of billions of dollars in new revenue bonds to finance the project if they are going to receive a significant smaller share of Delta water.
Conner Everts with the Southern California Watershed Alliance noted, "Southern California rate payers cannot afford to pay more and more to Metropolitan Water District for an unsustainable water supply. Regional self sufficiency, which can be achieved through conservation, storm water and reuse projects, is a much more affordable way to make more water for Southern California water users."
Restore the Delta policy analyst Jane Wagner-Tyack quipped, "The report is so out of touch with reality that it actually places the new Stockton water supply project under water because the authors have decided that the way to fix the Delta is to permanently flood it. By depriving Stockton of a water supply, it seems that someone has made a decision to relocate the Delta's largest urban population of 300,000 residents somewhere else."
Barrigan-Parrilla said that despite multiple attempts by Delta water agency representatives, Delta engineers, levee experts trained at other renowned universities, economists, and Delta advocates, the authors of the PPIC reports on the Delta have rebuffed attempts to incorporate local input into their research. The report's writers are Josué Medellín-Azuara, Ellen Hanak, Richard Howitt, and Jay Lund, with research support from Molly Ferrell, Katherine Kramer, Michelle Lent, Davin Reed, and Elizabeth Stryjewski.
"The PPIC models regarding salinity changes in the Delta and how such changes would alter our economy are flawed," Barrigan-Parrilla concluded. "If people in California want to know the real value of the Delta economy presently and how exporting water could destroy it, they should read the Economic Sustainability Plan recently published by the Delta Protection Commission - a rigorously reviewed document produced by experts who know the Delta best."
PPIC tries to hide funding by Bechtel, Packard and Resources Legacy
Barrigan-Parrilla noted that while the cover states the report was funded by The Watershed Science Center at UC Davis, page 62 of the report explains that the study was paid for by the Delta Solutions program funders, that once again includes the Stephen Bechtel Foundation, Resources Legacy Fund and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
"So it seems this time rather than checks going directly to PPIC from these pro peripheral canal foundations, checks floated through the University and then to UC Davis," said Barrigan-Parrilla. "Restore the Delta believes this is a worsening scenario because the average person will simply believe that the study was financed by an unbiased educational institution without a hidden agenda. And if there is nothing to hide, then why aren't the funders on the cover?
According to the Bechtel Foundation's website (http://www.sdbjrfoundation.org), "Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. created the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation in 1957 to improve the quality of life for Californians by addressing selected issues that challenge the health and prosperity of the state. In addition to his leadership of the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and the Stephen Bechtel Fund, Mr. Bechtel is Chairman Retired and a Director of Bechtel Group, Inc."
The Brown and Obama administrations are currently fast-tracking Arnold Schwarzenegger's Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal in order to export more Delta water to southern California and corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Delta advocates believe the construction of peripheral canal or tunnel would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other imperiled fish species.
Do PPIC's authors live in a parallel universe?
The PPIC report's assumption that the new peripheral canal/tunnel will only divert 4.9 million acre feet of Delta water is mind boggling, considering that exports from the Delta have reached record levels well over 4.9 million acre feet annually over the past 10 years. The Brown and Obama administrations exported a record amount of water from the Delta in 2011.
The annual export total, including water diverted by the Contra Costa Canal and North Bay Aqueduct, was 6,633,000 acre-feet in 2011 - 163,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,470,000 acre-feet set in 2005, according to DWR data. The annual export total, excluding water diverted by the Contra Costa Canal and North Bay Aqueduct, was 6,520,000 acre-feet in 2011 - 217,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,303,000 acre-feet set in 2005.
Are we to believe that the state water contractors are going to agree to the building of an enormously expensive peripheral canal that would actually divert less water from the Delta than the record levels that were delivered to southern California and San Joaquin Valley agribusiness in 2011? The PPIC report authors apparently live in a parallel universe devoid of science, logic and facts.
The record pumping from the Delta in 2011 - used to fill billionaire Stewart Resnick's Kern Water Bank and southern California reservoirs - resulted in a huge, unprecedented fish kill at the Delta pumps. Agency staff "salvaged" a total of 11,158,025 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011 alone. Scientists estimate that the actual amount of fish lost in the pumps is 5 to 10 times the "salvage" numbers.
A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were "salvaged" during this period. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
There is no doubt that the Brown administration has eclipsed the Schwarzenegger administration's abysmal environmental legacy by exporting a record amount of water from the Delta and killing record numbers of fish in the Delta pumps in 2011.
The MLPA/peripheral canal connection
Meanwhile, Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird are not only continuing Schwarzenegger's mad drive to build a peripheral canal, but they have forged ahead with Schwarzenegger's privately funded Marine Life Protection Act" (MLPA) Initiative. The initiative is a corrupt process, overseen by a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, coastal real estate executive, agribusiness hack and other corporate operatives with many conflicts of interest, that creates so-called "marine protected areas" on the California coast.
And guess who is funding the MLPA fiasco? The Resources Legacy Fund and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, two of the three funders of the recent PPIC report promoting the construction of the peripheral canal, are also funding the MLPA Initiative! The initiative creates "marine protected areas" that fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wave and wind energy projects and all other human impacts on the ocean than fishing and gathering.
In one of the most overt conflicts of interest in California history, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired the "august body" that designed the "marine protected areas" that went into effect on the Southern California Coast on January 1. Reheis-Boyd, a big oil industry lobbyist advocating for new offshore drilling off the California coast, the Keystone XL pipeline and the gutting of environmental laws, chaired the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast, as well as "serving" on the North Central Coast and North Coast Task Forces.
The Packard Foundation and four other "non-profits" donated a total of $20 million to fund the MLPA Initiative. The Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a shadowy organization that North Coast environmental leader John Lewallen describes as a "money laundering operation" for corporate money, received the funds from these foundations to implement the unpopular MLPA process.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation contributed $8.2 million to fund the MLPA process. Julie E. Packard, the executive director and founder of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the foundation.
The Laguna Beach-based Marisla Foundation, founded by Getty Oil heiress Anne Getty Earhart, gave $3 million over several years. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation donated $7.4 million, the Keith Campbell Foundation contributed $1.2 million and the Annenberg Foundation contributed $200,000.
All of this money was dumped into the Resources Legacy Foundation to kick recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and seaweed gatherers, the most vocal advocates of fishery restoration and true environmental protection and the most fervent opponents of the peripheral canal, off the water in a disgusting case of corporate greenwashing. (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/02/18/the-corporate-money-behind-the-mlpa-initiative)
Lower than expected revenues and higher expenditures create additional budget pressure
by Brian Leubitz
These are not exactly the figures that the Governor wanted to see right now: Disbursements exceeded projections by $2.65 Billion and revenue was $165 million below the Governor's latest estimate from his budget proposal last week. That is $1.4 bil below the most recently passed budget. All in all, some nasty numbers.
"While we saw positive numbers in November, December's totals failed to meet even the latest revenue projections," said Chiang. "Coupled with higher spending tied to unrealized cost savings, these latest revenue figures create growing concern that legislative action may be needed in the near future to ensure that the State can meet its payment obligations.
Ed Begley Jr., a renowned actor and environmental advocate, will narrate Restore the Delta's groundbreaking documentary film Over Troubled Waters.
"The story of the Delta as told by Delta locals is a must-see for all Californians," said Mr. Begley, working with Media Creations, a regional production company.
"We need to know why this area is worthy of protection. It is a hidden treasure, and with enough water it is a place where fisheries and sustainable agriculture can thrive together once again," said Begley.
Begley's role in the film was announced as the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal. Delta advocates oppose the peripheral canal's construction because it would likely result in the extinction of imperiled Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and Sacramento splittail populations.
Ed Begley Jr., a veteran stage, television, and film performer, first came to public attention for his portrayal of Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the long-running hit television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six Emmy nominations. A few of his feature film credits include Batman Forever, The Accidental Tourist, The In-Laws, and most recently Pineapple Express (a movie that I loved!)
"Having served as the past chair of the Environmental Media Association, Mr. Begley's response to pressing environmental issues is one of action and engagement personally and publicly," according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta.
A winner of several environmental awards from national and regional conservation groups, Ed Begley Jr. has endorsed Restore the Delta's work and mission.
"While I am a resident of Southern California, I support the work of Restore the Delta, a broad coalition of Delta residents, farmers, environmentalists, concerned citizens, and business people from throughout California," said Begley. "Restore the Delta is a grassroots organization that advocates for adequate water flows into the Pacific Coast's largest estuary - the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta."
"Restore the Delta is fighting to protect the primary nursery for California's coastal fisheries, including salmon fisheries that support the food chain for Orca whales. Restore the Delta is also fighting to protect water needed by thousands of small family farmers within the Delta - including some of California's oldest farming families who helped to build this state," stated Begley.
Begley emphasized that over the last thirty years, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a once thriving ecosystem that sustains salmon and other fish populations up and down the California Coast, has been in steady decline.
"One of the main causes of the Delta's decline has been the excessive export of water to other areas in the state," he explained. "A great deal of this water has been sent to large-scale corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and in Kern County. But this part of the story regarding the Delta's decline is often overlooked by mainstream media."
As a Southern California resident, Begley noted that there are "many potential programs and resources" that can be put into place to increase their water supply reliability while reducing their dependence on water taken out of the Delta - and he pointed to his own personal efforts to conserve water.
"At my home, I have installed catchment basins so that I can collect rain water each winter for reuse in my garden throughout the year. But we also need to support larger scale water conservation and recycling programs that will enable us to have the water that we need while protecting one of California's most important ecosystems," Begley added.
Over Troubled Waters, the story of the Delta told by Delta locals, is scheduled for release in Spring, 2012. "This project has been initially endorsed by over a dozen individuals and groups, spanning from John McCrae with the rock group CAKE to Congressional representatives, from California legislators to Delta business leaders, and from professional fishermen to regional musicians," said Barrigan-Parrilla.
For more details on Cake's endorsement of Restore the Delta, go to my article in the Sacramento News and Review: http://www.newsreview.com/sacr...
To see the endorsements and learn more about Over Troubled Waters visit http://overtroubledwaters.org/... Staff with Restore the Delta and Media Creations are available for interviews. For more information, contact: Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta, 10100 Trinity Pkwy, Suite 120, Stockton, CA 95219, Email: Barbara [at] Restorethedelta.org, Phone:209-479-2053
2011: a record year for water exports and fish kills
The announcement by Restore the Delta follows a record year for Delta water exports. The annual export total, including water diverted by the Contra Costa Canal and North Bay Aqueduct, was 6,633,000 acre-feet in 2011 - 163,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,470,000 acre-feet set in 2005, according to DWR data.
The annual export total, excluding water diverted by the Contra Costa Canal and North Bay Aqueduct, was 6,520,000 acre-feet in 2011 - 217,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,303,000 acre-feet set in 2005.
The record pumping from the Delta - used to fill the Stewart Resnick-controlled Kern Water Bank and southern California reservoirs - resulted in a huge, unprecedented fish kill at the Delta pumps in 2011. Agency staff "salvaged" a total of 11,158,025 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011 alone.
A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were "salvaged" during this period, according to DFG data. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
The fish "salvaged" at the "death pumps" of the state and federal water projects also include hundreds of thousands of threadfin shad, striped bass, American shad, white catfish and other species. DFG data reveals that 742,850 threadfin shad, 514,921 American shad, 496,601 striped bass and 100,373 white catfish were "salvaged" between January 1 and September 7 of this year.
Agency staff also "salvaged" 35,560 Sacramento River spring run and fall run chinooks, 1,642 Central Valley steelhead and 14 green sturgeon in the project facilities during the same period.
Although the salvage counts are certainly alarming, the overall loss of fish in and around the State Water Project and Central Valley Project facilities is believed to be much greater than the salvage counts. The actual loss could be 5 to 10 times the salvage numbers, according to "A Review of Delta Fish Population Losses from Pumping Operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," prepared by Larry Walker Associates in January 2010 for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (http://www.srcsd.com/pdf/dd/fishlosses.pdf).
At the same time Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird are forging ahead with the plan to build the peripheral canal after a year of record fish kills and water exports, they are continuing Arnold Schwarzenegger's privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, a process overseen by a big oil industry lobbyist, marina developer, coastal real estate executive, agribusiness hack and other corporate operatives with numerous conflicts of interest.
In case you were asleep for the past few years, we have a revenue problem with our budget. Namely, we don't have enough cash coming in to pay for our state's priorities. Gov. Brown is hoping to clear the field for his own measure, but it seems he has a lot of work to do on that front judging from the news of the day.
First, Molly Munger dropped half a million dollars on her own measure that aims to raise $10 billion for schools. Her measure raises the entire tax structure in a progressive fashion. You can read more here, but this is the type of measure that progressives would ordinarily support. However, given the need for budget flexibility, there will be substantial pressure on this measure to get out of the way.
However, Molly Munger is no lightweight. She's a veteran civil rights litigator who also happens to be the daughter of Warren Buffet's longtime business partner, Charles Munger. Her brother, Charles Munger, Jr, spent a bunch of money ($12mil) on Prop 20 to get Congressional redistricting into the commission. Molly Munger has not indicated how deep her pockets on this one will go, but if she's willing to put up $500K, will she drop the other million or two to get it on the ballot? As Peter Schrag has said, shepherding this thing through the whole process will be quite the challenge for Ms. Munger.
The other big news today was the joint LAO/Dept. of Finance estimation of the Governor's proposed revenue measure. Suffice it to say there are a few problems:
The Democratic governor is counting on a voter-approved tax increase on sales and the wealthy to generate $6.9 billion for the 2012-13 budget. But the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office says Brown's plan would raise only $4.8 billion in the first budget cycle.
The Analyst's Office and Department of Finance included their separate projections in a joint letter to Attorney General Kamala Harris that is required for ballot preparation. (SacBee)
In other words, more uncertainty for a Capitol building that is rife with it now. Of course, trying to project the economy right now is somewhere between ridiculously hard and impossible right now, but the $2.1 billion gap is larger than the Gov. would have liked to see right now. We'll have to see what kind of contingency plans the governor makes for this extra whole that he now will have to make up.
Might we see "Return of the Triggers"? If the Governor thinks that the $6.9 estimate is worth gambling on, the situation ends up being remarkably similar to where we found ourselves last year, waiting on cash to come in. One would hope that the triggers don't become a regular feature of our budget cycle, but it might be, once again, the easiest way out of a box.
Or, you know, some other random number will pop out of the sky in a few days and the whole scenario will change. Heisenberg pretty much rules Sacramento these days.
Cuts would deal with triggered cuts and $13B 18 month deficit
by Brian Leubitz
What some are calling a "ransom note" others call the terrible truth. Jerry Brown's budget proposal sets a dark scenario for the state. And yet, somehow we have gotten to the point that a dystopic future with three less school weeks is somehow optimistic.
Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his new budget plan, calling for a painful $4.8-billion cut in public school funds if voters reject a proposed tax hike that he hopes to put on the ballot in November.
Despite the possible reduction - the equivalent of slashing three weeks from the school year - the spending blueprint Brown released Thursday is a relatively optimistic document. It assumes he will have to close a $9.2-billion deficit, a vast improvement over last year's $26-billion gap.
Half of the deficit would be wiped out through the temporary half-cent sales-tax hike and increased levies on the wealthy that Brown wants voters to approve - or by the schools cuts. The remainder would be eliminated with reductions in welfare, Medi-Cal and other programs. (LA Times)
The plan calls for cutting three thousand state workers at a time when jobs are already scarce. It calls for additional Medi-Cal cuts, which frankly, I didn't think possible and might end up in court. And at this point our welfare system is essentially dead. So, optimism abounds.
"It's the most expensive ransom note in California political history," Dan Schnur, a former aide to Republican Governor Pete Wilson and now director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said yesterday in a telephone interview.
Which is really rather rather funny because how often legislative Republicans have played the ransom game. Try doing a search on Calitics for ransom note, you get lots of results. Like this one from March with their 57 requests. Or this one from 2009, where Sen. Hollingsworth wanted to do Intuit's bidding and get rid of a tax simplification tool. The hits just keep on coming.
But here's the thing, education is 40% of the budget, and we can't pretend that we can keep making cuts forever without touching education. Call it whatever you want, but unless we get revenues, it ain't going to be pretty. Telling voters the truth isn't a ransom note.
If you care to look, it seems that the Sacramento press corps (all three to five of the hardy souls) have just written either a wrap up of 2011 or a preview of 2012. You basically get a few points with slightly different order depending on the writer(s), but here are a few points worth noting:
1) Jerry Brown is just Jerry Brown
That isn't to say he's any worse than any other governor that we could have ended up with, but that he's not some super hero who can ride in to save the day. Even with all of his experience, he can't magically do Jedi Mind Tricks on the Republicans to somehow be reasonable. I think there was a lot of hope this time last year that Jerry Brown, with all of his experience a generation ago, would be the adult in the room for the bunch of children in the legislature. But I suppose sometimes the delinquents win.
2) 2012 will be a make or break year for Brown and California generally. Or not.
This is sort of a funny one. Because, really, the same thing has been said about our situation for the last four years or so. Really, ever since the worst of the budget mess began, we have been playing with fire. So, in that sense, yes, every year is really important, but somehow we've been able to find some way to make the cuts, cuts, cuts and more cuts into our budget to avoid any real decision-making. Yes, those cuts are a real decision, but more in the passive sense. We have left the decisions for a few whims of whomever gets the last word at the dais of the respective budget committees, or whomever manages to catch the leaders at an opportune moment.
They say that budgets are a statement of our priorities. But I hope, for all of our sakes, that isn't true of the past five years. Is it really our priority to make the school year shorter? Or to abandon our sick and elderly? Or to cut fire protection services? It is hardly any robust statement of priority when there is a gun at your head. Our system is so skewed towards one particular priority, taxes, that we have lost all sense of everything else.
Perhaps this is the year that changes that, but from the statements of Sen. Steinberg and Spkr Perez, I wouldn't expect much from the Legislature. They seem content to wait back for the Novemeber election and to satisfy the budget deficit ($13B-ish) with cuts alone until then.
"My view is you always have an open door and outstretched hand, but I don't think we do anything as our main strategy that requires a two-thirds vote," Steinberg said. "We're gone down that path far too many times."(SacBee)
So, perhaps we'll see a fairly standard legislative year. Maybe something happens with pensions, but more likely, we are in a holding pattern until something is determined at the ballot box with a revenue measure of some sort in November.
3) New Districts and Top 2 Will Bring Changes to Composition of Legislature
At the very least, we will see something new here. There will, most certainly, be several Dem-on-Dem elections in November. Laura Richardson and Janice Hahn, Howard Berman and Brad Sherman seem destined for some expensive races. There may be a few Rep-on-Rep, but the numbers and costs will likely be far fewer. The thing is that there is usually enough Democratic support to get one Dem in a deep Red district top 2, but that isn't always the case in some of the Bluest seats. Or to flip that, the Deepest Blue is darker than the deepest red.
Now, as to the districts, well, there is still the question of the Senate district referendum. There is still no word as to whether it will qualify (but expect some sort of word within a few weeks as to whether they will need a full count verification). But, with the signatures out there, the sponsors of the referendum (GOP Senators for the most part) are trying to get some other map more to their liking. The Supreme Court will likely decide on that fairly soon as the SoS needs to prepare for the elections.
There is a very real chance that the Democrats get 2/3 in the Senate (and take away whatever power the Senate GOP caucus had), but it is extremely unlikely that the Assembly Dems are able to do the same. (Cali_girl_in_texas has the over/under at 50). I'm skeptical that situation would really bring all that much change. Democrats would just be paying more attention to the Assembly. Just a few different, slightly more radical, people in the position of blocking action.
Well, it's about time to get rolling into a new Legislative year, should be fun!
The abundance of endangered Delta smelt, an indicator species that demonstrates the health of the imperiled Bay-Delta ecosystem, was greater in 2011 than it has been any year since 2001.
Yet state fishery biologists note that population remains a small fraction of historical abundance. "The improvement is likely due in large part to higher than usual Delta outflow which resulted in more and better habitat," according to Marty Gingras, Department of Fish and Game (DFG) fishery biologist, in a press release on December 22.
The high flows resulted in keeping the Delta smelt away from the state and federal pumping facilities in the South Delta, where millions of Sacramento splittail and other fish were killed this year. Only 51 Delta smelt were "salvaged" in the pumping facilities that export water to southern California water agencies and corporate growers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley in 2011.
It is exceptionally difficult to determine the actual number of Delta smelt, so DFG biologists use survey data to develop "indices" of the species' abundance, Gingras noted. An index is a number that is likely to vary in direct proportion to abundance.
The Fall Midwater Trawl Survey index of Delta smelt abundance was 343 this year while the index in 2010 was 29 and its record high was 1673 in 1970. "After a decade of record or near-record low annual abundance, the increased number of Delta smelt in 2011 is encouraging," said Gingras.
Delta smelt occur only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. The finger-sized fish was historically one of the most abundant in the Delta, but the species declined dramatically in recent years, due to massive water exports out of the Delta.
It was listed as "threatened" under the California and Federal Endangered Species acts (ESA) in 1993. After a further decline due to increased water exports, the species was designated as "endangered" in 2010 under the California ESA.
Other fish numbers increase over 2010, but still low
The DFG survey also documented an improvement in striped bass, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and American shad indices in 2011, but the numbers of these species are also just a fraction of historical abundance. (http://blogs.esanjoaquin.com/san-joaquin-river-delta/files/2011/12/2011_FMWT_Memo-2.pdf)
The striped bass index was 272 this year, compared to 43 last year and a record high of 19,677 in 1967. This year's index was the highest since 2006.
The longfin smelt index was 477 this year, compared with 191 last year and a record high of 81,737 in 1967. This year's index was the highest since 2006.
The threadfin shad index was 228 this year, compared with 120 last year and a record high 15,267 in 1997. This year's index was the third lowest in the history of the survey.
Finally, the American shad index was 894 this year, compared with 683 last year and a record high of 9,360 in 2003. This year's index was the thirteenth lowest in the survey's history.
"Ongoing efforts to protect and recover the Delta smelt population include research on threats to the species, active management to minimize loss at water diversions under federal ESA biological opinions and a state ESA authorization, development of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, improved water quality, habitat restoration and conservation of genetic diversity through special hatchery-rearing techniques," according to Gingras.
However, Delta advocates counter that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal to export more water to corporate agribusiness and southern California will actually result in the destruction of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, rather than "protecting and recovering" them. All scientific evidence points to the fact that taking more water out of the system, as the BDCP aims to do, will result in the extinction of Delta and longfin smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled species.
Why no mention of huge fish Delta fish kill?
Strangely missing from the DFG's press releases is any mention of the fact of the huge, unprecedented fish kill that took place at the Delta pumps this year. That state and federal government agencies "salvaged" a total of 11,158,025 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011 alone.
A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were salvaged during this period, according to DFG data. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
The fish "salvaged" at the "death pumps" of the state and federal water projects also include hundreds of thousands of threadfin shad, striped bass, American shad, white catfish and other species. DFG data reveals that 742,850 threadfin shad, 514,921 American shad, 496,601 striped bass and 100,373 white catfish were "salvaged" between January 1 and September 7 of this year.
Agency staff also "salvaged" 35,560 Sacramento River spring run and fall run chinooks, 1,642 Central Valley steelhead and 14 green sturgeon in the project facilities during the same period.
While no comprehensive studies have been conducted on how many of the salvaged fish survive, fish advocates believe that the majority of many species perish during and after the salvage process.
Although the salvage counts are certainly alarming, the overall loss of fish in and around the State Water Project and Central Valley Project facilities is believed to be much greater than the salvage counts. The actual loss could be 5 to 10 times the salvage numbers, according to "A Review of Delta Fish Population Losses from Pumping Operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," prepared by Larry Walker Associates in January 2010 for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (http://www.srcsd.com/pdf/dd/fishlosses.pdf).
A record year for water exports
The reason for the massive, unprecedented fish kill in the Delta pumps was the record amount of water exported out of the Delta this year by the Brown and Obama administrations. The pumps exported a record 6.5 million acre-feet of water in 2011, while the previous record was 6.3 million acre-feet in 2005.
"One of the reasons for the record-setting pumping is that much of the water this year went to refill the underground Kern Water Bank, largely controlled by billionaire farmer Stewart Resnick, and to the smaller Diamond Valley reservoir, which serves Southern California," according to Mike Taugher of the Contra Costa Times. (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19014459 )
Caleen Sisk-Franco, the Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, who is working on an innovative plan to restore winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta, was appalled by the millions of fish killed in the state and federal water export facilities in 2011.
"I am just wondering why it is okay to have the largest fish kill going on in the Delta and no one notices," said Sisk-Franco. "There are more endangered fish killed every day in the Delta pumps that are supposed to be protected. Try catching one of them to eat, and see how fast you get in trouble, but just let them swim into the Delta pumps and no one is trying to save them!"
Sisk-Franco asked, "How many dead fish is too many? Who will speak up for the fish? Everything is connected and soon we will understand what this fish kill means to the human beings."
While the improvement in Delta smelt abundance this year is certainly a positive development, the alarming news about the record fish kill at the pumps this year and state and federal plans to fast-track the construction of an environmentally destructive peripheral canal or tunnel through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan overshadows this welcome information.
Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird have not only continued the absmal environmental policies of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger by advancing Schwarzenegger's campaigns to build the peripheral canal under the BDCP and to set up controversial "marine protected areas" under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. They have, in fact, exceeded the fish-killing policies of Schwarzenegger by authorizing record water exports and presiding over a record fish kill at the Delta pumps in 2011.
Another round of cuts is hardly worth celebrating, but Brown seems to have at least saved the 175 day school year.
K-12 school districts were at risk of losing as much $1.5 billion - the equivalent of seven instructional days - under the budget Brown and lawmakers enacted earlier this year. But they will face a smaller $79.6 million reduction in general funding. That should avert massive reductions in the school calendar or other drastic measures for most districts.
"It turns out the cuts are far less than they would have been," Brown said.
Districts will still face a $248 million elimination of school bus funding, however. Jill Wynns, president of the California School Boards Association, said districts will cut somewhere other than buses because they are mandated by federal law to provide transportation for students with disabilities.(SacBee)
Also getting big cuts? Higher education. UC, CSU, and the community college system all lose $100 million. Community College Chancellor Jack Scott has indicated that will mean a $10/unit fee increase for community colleges, and UC and CSU will likely see another round of fee hikes.
Director of Finance to hold meeting at noon regarding the "trigger cuts"
by Brian Leubitz
Today's the day. If you remember back to the disaster that was last year's budget there was a $4B mystery source of revenue that was basically a cross your fingers and hope real hard kind of thing. The legislature then asked the Controller (John Chiang), the Legislative Analyst (Mac Taylor) and the Director of Finance (Ana Matosantos) to track how much revenue was coming in, and then if that $4B did not come in, "pull the trigger" on cuts of up to that amount that were already determined.
Well, today is that day, and Matosantos, Brown (and formerly Schwarzenegger's) Director of Finance has to decide how much will be cut for the 2012 part of the current fiscal year. Don't expect much good news, as the Controller's office already released data indicating that we weren't going to hit that target. Oh...and we spent more than we projected.
After accounting for November revenues, total year-to-date general fund revenues are now behind the budget's estimates by $1 billion, but expenditures for the year are over projections by $1.95 billion. It turns out that during a bad economic period, people need more services, but in the current climate in Sacramento, getting the legislature to approve the revenues for those services is an impossible feat even for somebody with the experience of Jerry Brown.
And so we go to the people, I suppose. According to a new PPIC poll, Californians are not particularly interested in a cuts only budget.
A new poll shows 60 percent of California voters, weary of state spending cuts and unsettled by the prospect of more, are ready to support Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to raise taxes. ... When asked about those automatic spending reductions, part of the budget package signed last summer, a plurality of likely voters - 45 percent - say they would prefer a mix of spending cuts and tax increases to address the shortfall, according to the poll.
Brown, a Democrat, is seeking to raise the statewide sales tax a half-cent and increase income taxes on people who make $250,000 or more a year. He opened a campaign committee last week, and his political adviser, Steve Glazer, has started fundraising for the effort.(SacBee)
There is a long time between now and November 2012, and a lot of painful cuts remain no matter what happens at the ballot box. But as we continue this slow motion take-down of the California Dream, we'll need to consider what our values really are. Perhaps we really are a state that is only concerned about our present day self-interest, but I have higher expectations for Californians. We can, and will, break out of this viscous cycle of cuts.
I was going to make this post about the Governor's approval numbers, but he just made it a little bit more interesting by releasing an "Open Letter to the People of California." Quite auspicious sounding, but what it really is his revenue plan. Here's the meat of that plan:
My proposal is straightforward and fair. It proposes a temporary tax increase on the wealthy, a modest and temporary increase in the sales tax, and guarantees that the new revenues be spent only on education. Here are the details:
Millionaires and high-income earners will pay up to 2% higher income taxes for five years. No family making less than $500,000 a year will see their income taxes rise. In fact, fewer than 2% of California taxpayers will be affected by this increase.
There will be a temporary ½ cent increase in the sales tax. Even with this temporary increase, sales taxes will still be lower than what they were less than six months ago.
This initiative dedicates funding only to education and public safety--not on other programs that we simply cannot afford.
This initiative will not solve all of our fiscal problems. But it will stop further cuts to education and public safety.
This is basically what we have heard in the past, a hike on the highest earners along with a sales tax, and all of it dedicated to education and public safety. Red meat for both parties, a little tough on crime with a little teaching. Or, in other words, this package seems built from the ground up to win on the ballot. Polling numbers show broad opposition to additional education cuts, and without revenues, those are simply inevitable. While this package probably isn't exactly what we would draw up in a perfect world, the California system of government is anything but perfect. His language in this open letter is political-speak not intended for progressives. It is full of statements about how we can't afford programs (see the quote above) and how awesome it is that are spending levels are at percentages not seen since the seventies.
We could pick at the email, his talking points, and the specifics of the proposal. But Brown and his partners are building something that they think can win at the ballot, represent good policy in the long term, and help us out of the current budget crisis in the short term. It's not exactly an easy shot to wrap up those three objectives with a nice shiny ribbon.
And perhaps he has the juice to push the measure across the finish line. Today's Field Poll shows the Governor's approval ratings pretty much right at where he has been for most of his term, in the upper 40s. The current figure of 47% is down from 49% in September, but still within the margin of error of that survey. However, his disapprove numbers have continued to creep up as "undecideds" jump off the fence and create a 36% disapprove figure.
There are a number of reasons why Californians would begin to grow wary of the Governor, but the budget, as ever, looms large.
"The public is, I think, bracing itself for additional spending cuts, and that's never a good situation, either for the governor or a state Legislature," poll director Mark DiCamillo said.
With state revenue falling below projections, the Brown administration is expected this month to announce highly unpopular, automatic spending cuts in service areas including schools. Nearly two-thirds of Californians consider the trigger cuts, part of last summer's budget package, a bad idea, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents, the poll says.(SacBee)
The trigger cuts were a device of sorts to get a budget done, and from discussions in Sacramento, not a whole lot of people liked them there either. But they enabled the Legislature to get enough votes from the two Democratic caucuses to pass the odious budget. However, as the majority budget rules don't include revenue, we are still faced with the same difficult situation as we had at the beginning of the year: convince a Republican to think beyond the four walls of his own career, or continued austerity. Both Democrat and Republican voters are far from excited on the triggers, but with revenues continuing to fall below projections, they are likely to be triggered early next year.
Brown's revenue proposal will help fill in many of those cuts, but won't kick in until the end of next year. It is far from ideal, but with a recalcitrant Republican caucus it is what we have. The measure is being submitted to the AG's office today and will be circulating with plenty of time to get it on the November ballot.
Read the full "Open Letter to the People of California" over the flip.
Governor aims to increase highest tax bracket and sales tax for a limited time
by Brian Leubitz
If nothing else, Gov. Brown is ambitious this go-round. While his pension plan is slowly simmering in the Legislature, he knows that we really can't continue to function with cuts-only budgets. With the impending decision by Director of Finance Ana Matosantos on whether to pull the triggers in the last budget deal, we are looking at billions more of holes in the budget to fill. (And at this point, the only question that is out there is how much of the triggers will be pulled.)
Brown has mentioned that he will be bringing something to the ballot in terms of revenue, but it seems that there is serious movement on it now. He's been meeting with labor and his supporters too work on a plan that they can agree to get on the November ballot.
In the latest proposed fix for California's fiscal crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to announce a multibillion-dollar tax initiative in the coming days, asking voters to raise levies on upper-income earners and increase the state's sales tax by half a cent.
The levies would expire at the end of 2016, said sources with direct knowledge of the plan. The governor's office has been fine-tuning the tax measure for weeks with its labor allies. It hopes to file language with the attorney general's office as early as Friday so it can start gathering the signatures needed to place the measure on the November 2012 ballot.(LA Times)
The plan would buy four-five years of time in order to both reset the budget and hope that the economy recovers. Over the past six months there have been a raft of proposals being discussed from various organizations, and the most sure way to losing on all of them is having more than one tax measure on the ballot. If this does hit the streets fairly soon as anticipated, other potential measures will probably die quietly.
Until we see the details on this measure, I'll reserve full judgment. I do not like the inclusion of sales taxes, one of the most regressive taxes, but they do seem to be the most likely to pass. Other than taxing the 1% that is. Expect further details by next week at the latest.
Legislators ask Salazar and Laird to rescind Bay Delta Plan agreement
by Dan Bacher
On November 22, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and 16 other Northern California state legislators asked the Department of the Interior and California Resources Agency to rescind the approval of the widely-criticized Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with a select group of water exporters.
The Obama and Brown administrations are continuing to fast-track the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build a peripheral canal or tunnel to export more water to corporate agribusiness and southern California, in spite of tremendous risk to Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations and Delta communities.
Their letter to Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird was preceded by a letter sent to Salazar and Laird on November 16 by an unprecedented 242 environmental organizations, environmental justice groups, Native American Tribes, recreational angling organizations, commercial fishing groups and outdoor businesses urging them to rescind the MOA. (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/11/18/bay-delta-plan-agreement-opposed-by-242-groups)
"As representatives of the people of California, we have serious concerns with the current direction of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP)," the California legislators wrote. "The most critical among those include a failure of transparency in the process; the limited set of alternatives being considered; scientific inadequacy, including a lack of flow criteria for the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay Delta); the absence of cost/benefit analyses; and, the undue influence granted to State and Federal export water agencies to the exclusion of a meaningful role for other public interests."
The letter criticized the agreement for offering the signatories, including water agencies from southern California, the San Joaquin Valley and Santa Clara Valley, "extraordinary opportunities to influence the process, to the disadvantage of Delta communities, environmental organizations, fishing groups and the public at large."
"The MOA binds the parties to a rushed timeline for completing the plan, making adequate scientific analysis and consensus-building impossible. It establishes that long-term guarantees of 'certainty' to Central Valley Project export water contractors will be a first priority for state and federal decision makers. And, it memorializes the 'pay to play' nature of the BDCP, as many of our Washington legislators have phrased it, by giving the export water agencies an unprecedented level of control over what should be an open, public process," the letter continued.
The legislators cited the recent letter by Representatives George Miller, Doris Matsui, Jerry McNerney, Mike Thompson and John Garamendi to U.S. Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar that urged him to retract Interior's approval of the MOA and allow a public comment period of 45 days on the agreement prior to final approval.
"We urge the same, and for the State, in parallel, to retract the Department of Water Resources' approval of the MOA immediately," Wolk and the other legislators wrote.
Signees to the letter include California Senators Mark Desaulnier, Loni Hancock and Jared Huffman and Assembly Members Michael Allen, Bill Berryhill, Susan Bonilla, Joan Buchanan, Wesley Chesbro, Paul Fong, Alyson Huber, William Monning, Dr. Richard Pan, Nancy Skinner, Mariko Yamada, Jerry Hill and Roger Dickinson.
The letter asked for a reply in writing by December 16, 2011.
The opposition to the BDCP MOA, a plan to export more water disguised as a habitat conservation plan, is mushrooming. Members of Congress and California legislators are opposed to it. A massive coalition of 242 environmental groups, Indian Tribes, fishing organizations, environmental justice groups and consumer advocacy organizations is opposed to it.
Yet the Obama and Brown administrations appear committed to a peripheral canal plan that is likely to result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and Sacramento splittail.
These are the same administrations that have eclipsed even the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations in slaughtering Delta fish and Central Valley salmon in the state and federal water project facilities in the South Delta. The Obama and Brown administrations killed record numbers of Sacramento splittail and other fish in the pumps while exporting record amounts of water out of the Delta this year.
Over 11 million fish, including 9 million Sacramento splittail, have been "salvaged" at the Delta pumps near Tracy in 2011. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
The other 2 million fish "salvaged" at the pumps include striped bass, largemouth bass, Sacramento River spring chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead and other species. Yet the numbers salvaged are just a fraction of the actual loss of fish in the pumps; scientific studies point to the real loss being 5 to 10 times the "salvage" numbers. (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1).
The state and federal water projects pumped a record 6.5 million acre-feet of water from the Delta in 2011, according to government data compiled by Spreck Rosecrans at Environmental Defense. The previous record was 6.3 million acre-feet in 2005.
If Ken Salazar and John Laird have no problem killing record numbers of fish and exporting record amounts of water, is it any surprise that they are fast-tracking the plan to destroy the Delta by building the peripheral canal?
As Conservatives play games with the former President's legacy, what would Ronald Reagan do in today's California?
