Reporting on Governor Brown’s proposed 2012-13 Budget, ACWA (the Association of California Water Agencies) says “The budget calls for ‘bold investments’ [Brown’s words] in the state’s future. . . , including habitat and conveyance improvements in the Delta through the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan. It proposes $25 million and 135 positions within the Department of Water Resources to complete preliminary engineering work for the plan.”
ACWA further quotes from the budget’s introduction: “Once completed, the plan will provide the basis for issuing permits for the operation of state and federal water projects. . . . Future funding requests to address the state’s water needs will be necessary.” (Emphasis added.)
There you have it: beneficiary pays as it plays out in the real world, where California taxpayers fund BDCP planning in a budget that is trying to close a $9.2 billion shortfall through $10.3 billion in proposed cuts, with a promise of future funding requests to address the state’s water needs.
We know; we can do the math: $25 million is less than 3 percent of that shortfall – just a drop in the leaky budget bucket. Still, how many teachers would it hire?
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