Wilson to Call for Spending on State Building Projects

Gov. Pete Wilson will tell Californians in his State of the State address Wednesday that the government has been pinching pennies for several years now and it is time to repair an increasingly sagging infrastructure.

His speech will be the first step in a yearlong sales pitch. The governor hopes that the Legislature--and then the voters--will agree to spend billions of dollars from new bond sales on a variety of construction projects.

The governor will warn that public schools are overcrowded, state prison capacity is not keeping up with the war on crime, state park facilities have grown threadbare, farmlands are at risk of floods, valuable drinking water is being lost instead of stored, and fragile ecosystems are threatened by development.

In part, that is a list of the problems that the governor wants to clean up before he leaves office a year from now. Wilson officials say that it is also an attempt to take advantage of what their own polls show to be a generous mood in an electorate that is enjoying prosperity.

“Times are good and the economy is strong,” one Wilson official said at a briefing Monday. “Now is the time to invest in [our] infrastructure.”

Monday was the fourth consecutive day of the governor’s highly choreographed leaks to the media about announcements he will make in this week’s traditional speech.

Wilson amplified the media effort Monday by staging an event for television cameras in Los Angeles about the same message his staff leaked to newspaper reporters in Sacramento the day before. That plan called for $8 billion in state bonds for building schools.

Meanwhile, in Sacramento on Monday, administration officials briefed reporters on the two latest bond proposals they hope to place on the ballot this year, in June or November.

One would generate about $1.3 billion, largely for flood control and water conservation efforts. The other, for about $800 million, is aimed at state parks and coastal protection plans.

In both cases, part of the money is needed for the state to fulfill obligations it has already made.

For example, the environmental bond includes about $95 million for California’s share of a sweeping environmental improvement plan at Lake Tahoe. California has promised to spend $274 million on the project with an additional $378 million contributed by the state of Nevada and the federal government.

An additional $130 million from the environmental bond would pay California’s share of an agreement with the federal government to jointly purchase 7,500 acres of the virgin, old-growth Headwaters Redwood Forest near Eureka.

The environmental bond includes other projects that span the state, from new restrooms at Borderfield State Park in San Diego to campgrounds at San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz.

About $11 million would be spent to make state parks accessible to the handicapped. Some of the money would be used to acquire and improve about 800 coastal and beach access properties that have been offered to the state through various development agreements. Two such projects in the Malibu area would get about $1 million from the proposed bond.

Likewise, the water bond is expected to pay for some of the $140 million in delinquent payments the state owes to several county governments and local water agencies for various flood control projects already underway.

The water bond would also pay for continuing participation in Northern California’s giant CalFed water project. The project is responsible for pumping water to 5 million acres of crops and 22 million people--including much of the household drinking water in Southern California.

The water bond might trigger a Double take from some California voters who remember voting on another water bond--Proposition 204--a little more than a year ago. That bond will generate about $900 million, largely for improvements to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta area.

Officials said the next bond would continue some of those efforts as well as a variety of additional water conservation, flood control and water pollution projects statewide.

The back-to-back water bonds reflect a political strategy in the governor’s office of using bond money to pay for some items traditionally left to the state’s general fund. At the same time, officials are trying to limit the amount of each bond to improve the chances of approval by voters.

That’s why Wilson wants to fund his $8-billion plan for building school classrooms by passing four separate $2-billion bonds over several years. He would ask voters to pass one bond in each of the next four election years, beginning this June.

The governor’s proposals don’t always pass. State government has placed 15 bonds on the ballot since Wilson took office in 1991, and voters have rejected nearly half--most during poor economic times.

Wilson has also made previous bond proposals--including some that would have paid for some of the same park improvements he is pitching now--that were rejected by the Legislature before they even reached the ballot.

Legislative reaction Monday was generally positive. Senate leader Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) praised the governor’s attention to such important issues and promised to keep an open mind in the upcoming debates.

Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) said his Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee will consider the proposed environmental bond “a positive thing.”

The Legislature’s budget hawks are likely to question the wisdom of acquiring so much new debt. A state Finance Department report last year shows that California has $18 billion in outstanding bond debt, ranking it among the highest rates in the nation. As a percentage of state revenue, California’s bonded debt is 12th highest among the 50 states.

But administration officials contend that Wall Street is more concerned about the state maintaining its infrastructure than it is about the increased debt. “We are being very strategic and conservative in our bonding,” one official said.

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The Bond Proposals

Gov. Pete Wilson will propose $2.1 billion in new bonds to pay for improved state parks and other environmental projects, and to provide for flood control and water conservation efforts.

$800-million Watershed, Wildlife and Parks Improvement Bond Act

Coastal Protection: $100 million to protect ecosystems and create new public coastal access.

State Parks: $310 million for restoration and construction of facilities such as bathrooms and campgrounds.

Lake Tahoe: $95 million to improve air, water and other environmental concerns.

Wildlife Conservation: $95 million to acquire and protect ecosystems and wildlife habitat.

Headwaters Forest: $130 million for state’s share of agreement to protect 7,500 acres of old-growth redwoods in Northern California.

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$1.3-billion Water Management General Obligation Bond*

Recycling: New facilities for recycling water.

Conservation: New storage and other facilities for urban and agricultural water use.

Ground Water: Developing local plans for using additional ground water during droughts.

Watershed Management: Addressing problems of flooding, endangered species and fragile environment on a regional basis.

Pollution: New facilities and projects to reduce water pollution, such as temporary storage for pesticide-tainted agricultural water.

Flood Control: Improving levees and acquiring easements in flood plains.

CalFed: Feasibility studies for improving state’s water supply and storage.

* No dollar amounts attached to specific projects