News of the Arroyo


Title:

Green for green

Subtitle:

Proposition 84 would bring in billions to protect the environment

Date:

2006-10-12

Summary:

October 12, 2006 - Proposition 84 on the upcoming November will have have great environmental benefits for our region and all of California.

Author:

Joe Piasecki

Publication:

Pasadena Weekly

Content:

How green is our valley? Or, for that matter, our state?

Proposition 84, the largest environmental bond measure in California history, will test just how far Golden State residents are willing to go to preserve the environment.

Backed by numerous conservation groups, Proposition 84 calls for the state to issue $5.4 billion in bonds to improve drinking water quality and flood control systems while green-lighting numerous new environmental preservation efforts.

The money, according to an analysis by the League of Women Voters, would be spent as follows:

$1.6 billion for expanding and managing available drinking water resources
$928 million for preserving rivers, lakes and streams
$800 million for flood control and levee projects
$580 million for urban planning efforts to accommodate population growth (much of it for grants to public parks)
$540 million for protection of beaches and other coastal waters
$500 million for state parks and grants to education and research facilities
$450 million for wildlife and forest conservation

Of the $928 million earmarked for preserving inland water sources, $72 million is guaranteed to go toward projects in watershed areas of the LA and San Gabriel Rivers, according to proponents of the measure.

Tim Brick, Pasadena’s representative on the board of the Metropolitan Water District and head of the Arroyo Seco Foundation, believes some of that money — as well as grants for urban planning, nature education and public parks projects — will likely go toward improvements in the Arroyo and other places in the Greater Pasadena area.

“I think it’s our way of making an investment in the future. These projects are going to serve our region for the next 50 years or so,” said Brick, who praised Proposition 84 as an “integrated planning” effort that increases our ability to use natural resources while sustaining the environment that provides them.

Proposition 84 opponents, however, say $5 billion is too steep a price tag and are skeptical about potential benefits.

“Every special interest that helped get this boondoggle on the ballot will get a share of taxpayers’ money,” reads the ballot argument against Proposition 84, written by California State Board of Equalization member Bill Leonard. “The authors set aside billions for bureaucratic studies, unnecessary protections for rats and weeds and other frivolous projects.”

Leonard also argues that Proposition 1E — part of the multibillion-dollar bond package put out by Gov. Arnold Schwar-zenegger (who supports Proposition 84) and the state Assembly — also will go toward levee construction, meaning the state will spend too much on projects that could be funded at the local level.

Pasadena City Council members, however, tend to disagree. On Monday, the council voted unanimously to endorse Proposition 1E.

“What happens up north has a direct and material impact on what happens to the water supply on Southern California,” said Mayor Bill Bogaard, pointing out that much of the city’s drinking water originates in that area.

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