Statement on the Safe & Affordable Drinking Water Fund
Despite a tremendous effort on the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund – SB 844 and SB 845 – the legislation will not be moving forward this session, which concludes tonight at midnight. It is clear Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) was not comfortable putting his caucus up on a tax/fee vote during an election year.
We thank SB 844 and SB 845 author Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) and principal coauthor Sen. Andy Vidak (R-Hanford) for their leadership on this important issue.
To say we are disappointed is an understatement. There were strong political undercurrents working against our bills despite the fact that communities continue to suffer from the lack of clean drinking water. However, had the Speaker let the bills proceed, we were confident we had the votes, and that gives us optimism for next year.
Ag Council is now in conversations with our large and diverse coalition on strategies for next year and creating the expectation that this package will be voted on early in 2019. Asm. Heath Flora (R-Ripon) offered his leadership to work on this endeavor in the Assembly, along with his colleague Asm. Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella Valley).
We are proud of the work we accomplished and the coalition we built. With over 140 organizations in support, this is the furthest any effort has gone regarding drinking water or protections for agriculture from the State Water Resources Control Board. And, almost every editorial board across the state was in support of our movement, from the LA Times to the Sacramento Bee.
We are not deterred — not even close. Ag Council has already participated in meetings with legislators today in the Capitol to work on the path forward.
Thank you to all of our members for your unwavering support of this effort. It helped create the movement. Now, there is more work to be done.
We will relentlessly continue to pursue passage of this legislation because it is the right thing to do. As Sen. John McCain said in his farewell statement to Americans recently, “We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.”
Click HERE to read Speaker Rendon’s statement on this issue.