BUSINESS JOURNAL: Legislator says goal is to get water bond on 2014 ballot

By BEN VAN DER MEER - August 9, 2013, 3:00 a.m.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-43 Los Angeles

Legislators are making cautious progress on crafting a state water bond to go before voters next year, said an assemblyman who’s a member of the working group.

“The goal is that it will be on there in 2014,” Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, said on Thursday. Gatto is part of a team of legislators from both parties hashing out the contents of the potential bond, which was bumped from the ballot in 2010 and 2012 because of fears it wouldn’t pass or would detract from other ballot measures.

Gatto said the caution his group is exhibiting reflects that. There’s little debate about whether the state needs to do something relative to water, he said. Gatto said he’s heard eye-opening statements of agreement between representatives from different parts of the state and therefore different perspectives on the issue.

“There’s more statewide scope on this,” he said. “But it’s still very difficult.”

One concern, he said, is being able to create a “Christmas tree” bond with enough goodies under it to get broad-based support. An example would be putting spending from the bond into categories where it’s plainly obvious it could only be spent on projects in a particular region as a way to get support from those regions. But those goodies may also make the bond a target for those opposed to the spending.
From his perspective, Gatto says the bond either should be straightforward about representing different regional interests, or written to be obviously vital to the state as a whole.

 You can read more at http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2013/08/09/legislator-goal-water-bond-2014-ballot.html?ana=twt

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Mike Gatto is the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the California State Assembly.  He represents Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Franklin Hills, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake.  www.asm.ca.gov/gatto