Cram session may fail with voters

Our "leaders" in Sacramento had to pull an all-nighter to do it, but they jammed through a package of five bills to "fix the Delta" in the wee hours Tuesday morning.

Like hungover college freshmen, the governor and a majority of legislators are patting themselves on the back for a job well done. But when the rest of us get a chance to check their work, they may not be happy with the grade we give them.

There was just one public hearing on this package that claims to settle decades of debate. Few lawmakers or journalists have even read the bills at this point. Everyone seems to agree there will be an $11 billion bond measure on the November 2010 ballot. But almost nothing is known about what the money will do.

The project at the core of the controversy — the Peripheral Canal — is legally enabled but not funded by the bonds.

Apparently the Westlands Water District, which provides irrigation water in the San Joaquin Valley, and the Metropolitan Water District of South California, a huge conglomerate of municipal water providers south of the Tehachapis, expect to raise user fees to pay for the canal. But Capitol Weekly magazine talked to managers of small Los Angeles area districts who feel their fees are too high already.

When lawmakers finally drag themselves out of bed, they may find there rush job has no support anywhere — north or south.

We are pleased, however, that our Assemblywoman Alyson Huber seemed to be grounded and engaged. She and Sen. Lois Wolk introduced a bill to require that the Legislature study and vote on the Peripheral Canal before it goes forward. The simple idea was swept aside in a caffeinated blur.

Huber has consistently opposed the canal because it would move a great deal of clean, fresh water from the Sacramento River around the Delta to the pumping plants near Tracy. From there it goes south.

Up this way, the Peripheral Canal has been called "the vampire ditch." But a rather clueless Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up in Stockton late this week and tried to convince a crowd that the bills will "fix the Delta."

He was surprised when the line fell flat. We loved Huber's comment: "He might as well walk into a Giant's game wearing a Dodger jersey."

— Lodi News-Sentinel

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