California Water Alliance Issues Statement Opposing Proposition 68 for June Primary Election

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact: Robert Dolezal
(916) 408-5144

(Hanford, California) The California Water Alliance (CalWA) Board of Directors today voted to oppose Proposition 68, a statewide legislative initiative titled the Parks, Environment and Water Bond, appearing on the ballot in June’s Primary Election.

“All too often, Californians are fooled when they cast their ballots by believing misleading language like that used by California’s Attorney General to describe Proposition 68,” said Erik Hansen, Chairman of CalWA and a San Joaquin Valley farmer.

“Proposition 68 is a highly deceptive measure written by special interests that cloaks what really is a local-parks-and-recreation bond measure billed as a vital state water bond; it utterly fails to give Californians a single drop of new water or solve any of the state’s long-term water problems,” he said.

“Voters reading the state Attorney General’s initiative title and summary will learn little about how its four billion dollars will be spent,” he continued. “To help it pass, they called it a water bond. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“Local projects like those in Proposition 68 should be paid for by those who use the local and regional parks, not by the entire state’s taxpayers,” Hansen continued. “Pork-barrel spending to benefit environmental and conservation groups will keep our grandchildren paying interest and principal on these bonds for decades into the future.”

“When Californians vote in June, they should remember: Proposition 68 is not a water supply or reliability fix. It gives hundreds of millions of dollars to state conservancies, consultants and advisors without addressing real water problems facing real people,” Hansen continued. “We’ve been fooled before. Don’t let them fool us again.”

“The California Water Alliance’s mission is to promote legitimate water infrastructure policy not to lend credibility to yet another bond initiative that deceives fiscally responsible voters,” Hansen concluded.

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