If you find yourself in a hole, the old adage advises, the first thing you should do is stop digging. California is buried in a deep economic and fiscal hole, but our politicians seem bent on burrowing even deeper. The state has tens of billions of dollars in unsold bonds, and Treasurer Bill Lockyer has warned that with the state's lowest-in-the-nation credit rating he may market new debt only sporadically. Lockyer warned against a big water bond issue last year, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators ignored him. They approved an $11.2 billion bond issue, loaded with pork, that will...
When you think about hot commodities right now, you probably don’t think of water. Yet the price of water in some parts of the world is rising… sometimes very quickly. Take California, for example.
Mark Swatek is CEO of Southwest Water Co., a water utility that serves California and the Southwestern U.S. You may accuse him [...]Clean Water: The New Hot Commodity originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning, a FREE daily e-letter, offers a "uniquely refreshing" perspective on the global economy, investing, and today's markets.
Supporters of a proposed $11 billion water bond say the money is urgently needed to fix California's water supply problems, yet billions of dollars in previous bond money still hasn't been spent, according to the California treasurer. About half of the $20 billion in water and levee improvement bonds passed since 2000 was unspent as of July, according to the State Treasurer's Office most recent report on debt affordability. It is unclear how much of that money is actually available for new efforts, since lawmakers have appropriated billions for specific projects, according to Jason Dickerson, debt service analyst for the...
Sacramento - -- The $11 billion water bond that California voters will be asked to approve next year contains nearly $2 billion in earmarks that lawmakers candidly acknowledge were included in the proposal to win the votes that were needed to pass the plan out of the Legislature. More News * Dems, GOP split on NY trials of alleged terrorists 11.15.09 * Pelosi exhibits leadership, protects colleagues 11.15.09 * Tower of films to recall Alcatraz takeover 11.15.09 * Three Questions For: Mary McCue / Guardian of public space 11.15.09 Hundreds of millions of dollars of those earmarks - which some...
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated Monday that California's budget will fall out of balance by $5 billion to $7 billion this fiscal year, on top of a $7.4 billion gap already projected for 2010-11. If true, state leaders would confront at least a $12.4 billion to $14.4 billion problem when Schwarzenegger releases his budget in January. California currently has an $84.6 billion general fund budget. The Republican governor spoke with The Fresno Bee editorial board Monday after signing a bill placing a water bond on the November 2010 ballot. He emphasized deep spending cuts as a budget solution but did not...
Sunday, March 7, 2010
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