Oct 27 2009
New water bill made public
The closed-door meetings with the Governor Legislature on the water issue has finally produced something - a water bill.
There is no indication whether this is the true water bill, as nothing has arrived on the www.leginfo.ca.gov website. However, the Sacramento Bee obtained a copy of the water bill. You can view it here.
There have also been committee hearings on the water bill, which indicates this might be a possible solution that might come to a vote. The committee hearings can be viewed here. Press conferences about the water issue can also been seen at that link.
The problem with water is, in order to fix the situation, it costs money. There is nothing “free” about water. In fact, creating a solution for the water problem will anger many people. For Republicans, they will anger the agri-business and agriculture lobbies - both of which are big constituencies for them. This is true because a water solution cannot be found without some agricultural changes. Democrats are going to anger the environmentalist who support them. This is true because there will be an environmental impact to any water solution. Any water solution is also going to have to involve storage of water, which always angers environmentalists.
The water problem might be too large for an ineffective Legislature to solve. Although, if they solved it and proved they were willing to act on tough issues, people might not think they were so ineffective.
