California Teachers Association Votes to Oppose Water Bond (Proposition 18)

California Teachers Association Votes to Oppose Water Bond (Proposition 18)

by Dan Bacher

The California Teachers Association (CTA) State Council voted at its June meeting to oppose Proposition 18, the water bond that will be on the November ballot, according to an announcement from the No on the Water Bond Committee.

"We can't afford an $11.14 billion water bond," said David Sanchez, President of CTA. "With an already outrageous budget deficit, California can't afford an additional $1 billion every year, taking even more money away from our students, our schools and other essential services."

Another union, the United Farmworkers Union (UFW), announced its opposition to the water bond in an opinion piece written by UFW president Arturo Rodriguez in the San Francisco Chronicle in February. "The water bond that was recently approved by our lawmakers will give agricultural companies billions more in subsidized water," Rodriguez (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/22/ED7U1BUUH3.DTL).

Proposition 18, the so-called Safe, Clean and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010, will end up costing the state of California $22 billion once the interest is factored in.

"Proposition 18 opponents are urging a NO vote because back-room deals added billions of pork projects to the measure," the Committee stated. "Legislators and potential beneficiaries of water bond projects got their own items inserted into the bill at the last minute, increasing the cost of the bond on a daily basis."

The $11.14 billion water bond is part and parcel of the campaign by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and corporate agribusiness to build a peripheral canal and new dams. The canal is likely to result in the extinction of Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales populations. The peripheral canal/tunnel would cost $23 billion to $53.8 billion at a time when California has slashed the budgets for teachers, game wardens, state parks and health care for children.

No on the Water Bond (Proposition 18) is sponsored by a coalition of consumer, education, environmental, fishing, farming, tribal, labor and social justice organizations opposed to the water bond that will be on the statewide ballot in November.

Other Proposition 18 opponents include the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the River, Inter-Tribal Water Commission, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Planning and Conservation League, Restore the Delta, Sierra Club California and Winnemem Wintu Tribe.

Supporters of Proposition 18, united under the banner of the "Alliance for Clean Water and Jobs," include the Association of California Water Agencies, California Chamber of Commerce, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Western Growers Association and Westlands Water District. Two environmental NGOs, the Nature Conservancy California and Audubon California, back the bond.