Hanging in suspense

A deadline for producing legislation has come and gone, and water stakeholders continue hanging in suspense.

The conference committee that has spent the past week hashing out a package of water legislation focusing on the future of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta faced a Tuesday deadline for finalizing its conference report, which would then go to the floors of the Senate and Assembly for approval by Friday, the last day of this year's session.

But the committee never met yesterday, its 14 members preoccupied by long floor sessions. The committee is again scheduled to meet today, whenever the chairs —Sen. President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass — call it.

Some terse words have been offered by Republicans on the effectiveness of the conference committee, saying Republican input hasn't been heeded.

Steinberg's response:

“Over the past three weeks the Legislature has held six lengthy public hearings with full Republican input. ... I have assured Republican members that the policy pieces will not be debated on our floors until they are joined with a comprehensive finance proposal. I urge my Republican colleagues to hold their judgment until that work is completed, which will be no later than Friday.”

The circumstances seem to bolster the pessimistic comments one often hears regarding lawmakers' chances of passing historic water legislation on such a tight deadline, after years of failure on the issue.

Even so, the progress has been measurable, with Democrats and Republicans narrowing the gap on an infrastructure bond — Republicans having adopted the environmental projects that Democrats want, and Democrats overcoming their own aversion to storage infrastructure.

Farm news is portable, tractor ready

Apparently you can read the Capital Press while on the tractor, especially if it's a GPS-guided machine. This photo shows the Aug. 28 edition of Capital Press from the driver's seat of a John Deere 8230 rototilling bluegrass on the Stacy Kniveton farm near Ralston, Wash.

Again, Arnold rejects card-check unionizing

For the third time, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a farmworker-unionizing bill. On Wednesday, the governor rejected SB 789 by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).

The bill would have allowed "card-check" balloting for union representation as an alternative to the secret-ballot process. It was opposed by farm interests.

From the governor's veto message:

This process fundamentally alters an employee's right to a secret ballot election that allows the employee to choose, in the privacy of the voting booth without coercion or manipulation, whether or not to be represented. While I support the right of agricultural employees to voluntarily seek and choose representation if they wish, and ensuring that existing labor laws are enforced is a top priority for my administration, I cannot support this alteration of the secret ballot process.

Employers argue that card-check voting exposes workers to coercion by the union; United Farm Workers says the secret-ballot process exposes them to coercion by employers. 

From UFW:

Farm workers are subjected to sexual harassment, heat illness, abuses and intimidation at the work place. Yet, the governor, again and again, has failed to protect farm workers and continues to support employers who are responsible for at least 95 percent of the reported violations during union election campaigns.

Capitol Weekly links the veto to a $1 million donation to a UFW political action committee focused on opposing new water bonds. A water bond to accompany developing water legislation is among Schwarzenegger's top priorities.

Schwarzenegger to Obama: lift delta fish rules

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday released a letter he sent this week to the Obama administration pleading for intervention in the state's water crisis — specifically, a repeal of the salmon and delta smelt biological opinions contributing to this year's reduced water pumping from the delta.

Schwarzenegger's office gives figures of 35,000 jobs and $710 million in farm revenue lost to this year's water shortages. State and federal water managers have attributed nearly a quarter of this year's pumping reductions to the biological opinions. 

From Arnold's letter:

It is clear that we are trapped in an outdated and rigid bureaucratic process that dictates fish protection actions one species at a time rather than evaluating the entire ecosystem and addressing its many stressors. State and federal water pumps clearly impact the Delta, but regulating as though they are the only influences ignores the complexity of the situation and creates new problems while failing to solve others. 

Schwarzenegger wrangles with feds on drought relief

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking the Obama administration to reconsider its denial of a federal disaster declaration for drought-stricken California.

Schwarzenegger requested the declaration in mid-June. The feds denied it last month, saying the state could handle its own drought-induced social impacts. The governor argues that California's budget-balancing cuts, combined with ongoing wildfire response, have the state strapped.

From Arnold's public statement:

"The ongoing drought in California’s Central Valley is truly an emergency. We are doing all we can to find a long-term solution to the state’s water needs, but the impacts of the current drought will not wait for the legislature to act. Sadly, people are going without basic necessities right now. The federal government needs to step up and show it can still work for the people when they need it most."

Water, water everywhere ...

Discussion of water and delta issues is escalating this week at the Capitol. In two more joint hearings — following one last week — the Senate and Assembly water committees will continue mulling a five-bill water planned pushed by Democrats.

The committees meet Tuesday to discuss three bills dealing with management and governance of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and again Thursday for two bills addressing water rights and efficiency. 

On Wednesday, the Select Committee on Delta Stewardship and Sustainability will hold an informational hearing on water-infrastructure financing. 

The Democrats have left infrastructure funding out of the current package. They've focused instead on governance, saying a restructuring of the chaotic system by which the delta is currently managed must come first.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to veto any package that lacks a funding proposal, saying he wants a bond of about $10 billion. Various bond bills in that range have been proposed this year by Republicans and Democrats. But Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) now says that level of funding is too much for the state's weak fiscal condition.

The bills are slated for consideration by a conference committee before the legislature adjourns in mid-September.