Tuesday, 11/13/2007 Print Version |
Gov. Schwarzenegger Delivers Remarks at the California State Association of Counties Annual Meeting
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Good afternoon, and welcome to the CSAC’s 113th annual meeting. I am Supervisor Connie Conway, CSAC immediate past president, and a Tulare County Supervisor. My pleasure to be here with you. Oh, thank you. I have one fan over there. Oh, it’s one of my staff.
We’re here this week to celebrate our successes, but also to talk about how we as counties are leading the way in creating an even better tomorrow. As California county leaders we will play a vital role in creating a better tomorrow for our communities and our state. And there is still a lot of work to be done, but together I know we can tackle the challenges that lie ahead. We are very fortunate to have with us today a special speaker to kick off our conference; probably the first time in history our conference has been kicked off in this spectacular way. But to kick the conference off for us today is the Governor of California, the Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since he has—(Applause)
And he’ll be right with us. Since he has taken office, Governor Schwarzenegger has proven time and time again that he believes in a strong partnership with local government. He truly understands the vital role that counties play, and he listens to our viewpoints and our concerns. We appreciate him taking time to be with us today, because we know that all that he’s got going—natural disasters, policy decisions—he’s got a very full plate. But he did take time, and so we are very thrilled about that.
I’m truly honored to introduce an individual I consider a friend, and he is truly a friend of counties, the Governor of the state of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Applause)
GOVERNOR: Well, thank you very much. Thank you, and thank you, Supervisor Connie Conway, for the wonderful introduction, I really appreciate that. And if I walk a little bit funny it is because on Friday I was in the hospital to get my last few kind of appliances taken out of my hip that were still in there. So I had surgery but I’m fine today, and walking around without crutches, so I’m very happy about that.
But anyway, I just wanted to say that it is great to be here today, and this is of course great that you have had the CSAC’s 113th conference now, so you have had behind you 112 already. And this is quite an accomplishment, especially when you think about that you’re representing all 58 counties, and that means of course that you’re representing all the people of California. So I want to applaud, of course, your great dedication and your service, and your tireless effort, so let’s give you all a big, big hand for the great work that all of you are doing. (Applause)
And I’m impressed how many people are here today; this is really great. I heard there are over 500 people that are here. And I asked myself immediately the question, where were you when I opened up my movie Hercules in New York 38 years ago? I only had three people standing there at the box office, and it was a total flop. If I would have had all of you, it would have been a successful movie. So it’s too bad, a little late on that.
But it is great to have you here, it is also great to have so many other guests here. Senator Perata is here—where is Senator Perata, is he—oh, right over here. A big hand to Senator Perata. (Applause)
And then we have, of course, Attorney General Brown here with us, right here in the front row. A big hand to him. (Applause)
Then Mayor Dellums. It’s great to see you all pumped up, very nice. (Applause)
Then we have also Secretary Sunne McPeak is here also somewhere. I don’t know where she is, but she has been—where are you? Okay, she’s in the lobby. What is she doing? Drinking, eating, something. Okay, got it. But anyway, so it’s great, and there are many other guests here, so I want to thank you all for being here today.
But before I talk about the main subject, which is water infrastructure, I just wanted to mention just a little bit about the Bay Area oil spill, because this spill is—I was there last Friday. And let me tell you, it’s not only heartbreaking, but it is also outrageous, when you think about it. I mean, here we have all this huge space out there in the Bay, and you have a ship that crashes right into the bridge. But not only that—which is unbelievable human failure, I think—then on top of it, it takes that long to react to the oil spill, so by the time the next day comes around the oil is all over the Bay and is polluting, of course the area, and the birds are wiping out. And so it’s really very, very sad.
And believe me, we will ask the tough questions that need to be asked, and take all of the appropriate steps to avoid future accidents like that. And I think that we have to really make sure that we investigate this thoroughly, and to see also if we as a state can do more in order to prevent those kinds of accidents. In the meantime, to protect the public health, I’m signing an executive order today that will suspend harvesting of all marine life for human consumption in the areas affected by the spill until December 1. (Applause)
Thank you. Our Department of Public Health and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment are monitoring the situation, and I will get advice on how we’re going to move forward, and when we can continue and resume the harvesting. So I think this is very important. Right after this speech I’m going to go back over there to see how the cleanup efforts are progressing. I know there are now 1,500 people that are working on the cleanup effort, there are approximately 88 vessels that are working on it. I’m very happy to say that there are more birds that are being saved than that died. Over 1,000 birds have been found, and there are over 700 of them, the oiled birds that have been saved, so I’m very happy about that. But it is, like I said, a very, very sad story, and we want to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.
In the meantime, it is great to be here today to talk about the water infrastructure, I think which is very important. And I’m very happy that Senator Perata is here today, because of course he has been a great partner of mine in infrastructure bonds in general from the beginning, from last year on, when we did all the other infrastructure bonds. And he and I have been spending a lot of time together working on an issue that I know all of you care very much about, which is water infrastructure. And I think that, as you probably remember, that last year in 2006 in January in my State of the State Address, I challenged all Californians that we should invest in our future, we should invest in California’s future and start rebuilding California, and build our infrastructure up to the standard of where our population is. You know, we have not really built much in the last 30 years, and this is why it was very important that we make a commitment.
And I made a proposal of an infrastructure package of 68 billion dollars, and I think with the leadership of Senator Perata and Speaker Núñez and the Republican leaders also, we got to work on that and negotiated it. And even though we didn’t get everything, but I think with the help of everyone working together, Democrats and Republicans, we got a really good package, the 37 billion dollar package that was approved in the Legislature. And then with the help of Senator Perata and Speaker Núñez we went up and down the state, Democrats and Republicans campaigning to go and really get the message out there, and we got it approved by the people.
We were very proud of what was accomplished last year, but the fact is that it was only part, it was the first installment, because we didn’t get everything because there were worries, because it hasn’t been done for a while, that the state has invested that much money. So there were other things besides transportation, housing, and fixing our levees, and building the schools, and expanding our universities. We were also asking for fixing our prisons and bringing our prisons up to the level where it needs to be, because we have prisons that are built for 100,000 but we have 173,000 prisoners. And we also needed to bring our water, our water infrastructure up to the level of population where we are now, at 37 million.
So we didn’t get that, so Don and I, we said, “We’ll be back,” and so this year we were back. This spring we approved an infrastructure bond of almost 8 billion dollars for prison reform and for rebuilding our prisons, and building additional beds of 53,000, which was the largest expansion in the history of the California in the expansion of our prisons. And we wanted to make sure that we never let anyone out of the prison because we are running out of space, but we only let them out because they’re capable of going out and they have served their term.
So we were very successful in that, so the only thing that is really left now is water infrastructure, and this is what we have been working on now. And so we are very, very much into the discussions right now. As a matter of fact, we have only a few days left before the deadline to get a comprehensive water plan on the February ballot. And I can promise you that Senator Perata and I will not rest until this is done. We are very serious about this, and I know this means a lot to the whole state of California. As a matter of fact, the Senator and I have again spent a lot of time together. He has been out there pushing this legislation and pushing the long-term water plan for California. And we have been meeting and negotiating, and debating over this issue. As a matter of fact, I told him just a few minutes ago, “I’ve spent more time with you this last month than with my wife.” And Senator Perata is not as beautiful as my wife is, but it’s going to be a beautiful sight to have this on the February ballot. So this is where it’s going to pay off, and so I’m enjoying spending all my time with him.
And we all know that California is facing a serious water crisis because we haven’t done anything about water for the last 30 years. Whether it is the drought or if it is pumping through the Delta, or our half-empty reservoirs, everyone knows that we can see that we haven’t really done enough in order to really protect ourselves or protect California’s water future. Now, “A nation that fails to plan intelligently for the development and protection of its precious water will be condemned to wither because of its shortsightedness.” That’s what President Johnson said about water, and he’s absolutely correct. And I think that Senator Perata and all of us, we all will work very hard to make sure this does not happen in California.
Now, the reason why we wanted to come here, obviously, to CSAC, is because CSAC has been a great partner of ours, and has helped us in a lot of different ways. I remember when I was elected to be governor in 2003, right afterwards when California was really in economically bad shape and we were almost in bankruptcy, it was CSAC that helped me to campaign for the Economic Recovery Bonds, and because of that we brought our economy back. And you helped me also to campaign and to work for our three strike, protecting our three strike law. And the Workers’ Compensation Reform, you helped me on that to make sure that we have good reforms, and also to make those infrastructure bonds pass last year. So all of this was a partnership where we all worked together.
And because of that, because of the great success we had here, I wanted to come back today again and ask you for your help once again. Because the fact of the matter is that we have not added any major water storage or reservoirs in this state for the last 30 years. And we haven’t done any infrastructure for the last 30 years, even though the population has gone from 20 million to a 37 million population. And we all know that by the year 2050 we will have 60 million people in this state. If you like it or not, there will be around 60 million people in this state, so we’d better prepare. We need additional water storage, which is extremely crucial, but not only because we need it because of the population growth, but also because of global warming. We know that our snowpack is declining, which means more flooding in the winter and less drinking water in the summer. Now, when we talk about more flooding in the winter, that means that all of this water that is melting is running off into the ocean, and we are not capturing that water. This is why it is so important that we build additional water storage.
Or at the same time we have put so much pressure on our Delta over the years that it is now broken down. So we face an enormous challenge to make sure that California has all the safe, reliable and clean water that we need, but not only for 2, or 3, or 5 years from now, but for 20, 30, or 40 years from now.
And I think this is why I was elected, to create a big vision for California and to think far in advance, because I think it’s a big mistake if we only think always in incremental steps, for 5 years at a time. That is why I called for a special session of the Legislature, and why we have been working so hard to get this done. And I think that we are very, very close to an agreement that we can present to the voters at the February election. We all agree that we need conservation and water efficiency measures, we need flood control, a new Delta Conservation System and a conveyance system, and additional storage. We need to fix the Delta, and we need to fix the ecosystem. So all of these things we agree on.
The trick, of course, is to find what I call that sweet spot in the negotiations, because there are different opinions. There are some people that think we can kind of conserve our way out of this mess, and there are others that think we need just water storage. I think that is bogus, because I think we need everything. I think we need to fix the Delta, I think we need to fix the ecosystem, I think we need conveyance and we need water storage, below the ground and above the ground storage. So we need all of those things. We need to bring all of those different ideas together.
Senator Perata has done an amazing job and great, great work, and my staff has been working and has been very busy trying to nail down all of those final details. So our current plan will benefit every region of this state, all the way up from the north all the way down to San Diego. And I’m very pleased to say that I think if we do that the right way, I think that we can really help our economy, because our economy depends on this. Our 32 billion dollar a year agriculture industry depends on this. Our people depend on this, and our future depends on this. Without adequate water we can’t do any of the things that we all want to see happen here in California today or for our children, or for our grandchildren.
So please, I ask you again, as I have in the past. We need your help. I hope that all of you will come and contact your individual legislators and urge them to put this on the February ballot. I think this is very important. We don’t want to wait for next November. Let’s put this on the February ballot. It is a very important issue that is facing this state, and I think that if we do it right, and if we all work together, we can do it and we can make sure that this state will be a prosperous state for the future.
Now, there are people that will be debating over it, if this is the right time. They will be saying to you, “Well, maybe we should do it first in incremental stages,” which I don’t believe. I think we should do the whole thing. And the reason why I believe that is because we have to think big here. If we do infrastructure and water, no matter what plan it is, it will take 20 years to build. So in 20 years from now we will be 45 to 50 million population. Then after that we will not be able to go back and ask for another infrastructure deal for another 20 years. By that time we will be in the year 2050. So this is why I say by that time we will be 60 million people. So we have to think big now. We have to think about redoing this water that is now for 20 million people, but we should do it for 60 million people, just so you have an idea of how big we have to go. So this is not just a 2, a 3, a 5 billion dollar package. It’s at least 10 billion dollars. That’s what we’re talking about, and I think that we need it very badly.
There are other people that may say, “Well, you know, the economy is a little slow right now and a little sluggish, that the housing is down, and we are facing a structural deficit, maybe that’s the wrong time.” But it is because of that that it is the right time to do it, because this will help us stimulate the economy. The only reason why our economy is not yet operating at 100 percent, or on all 12 cylinders, is because our infrastructure is not there, because we haven’t built anything for 30 years. If we build our transportation as quickly as possible, our schools, and expand our universities, fix our levees and fix the water infrastructure for the future, our economy will be operating on all 12 cylinders. So we have to think about the future. This is the best thing for our economy. This is why it is important that we get it done this year and we get it done right away.
So I want to ask you again all for your help. I know that if we work together we can do it. We will be campaigning, we will be going. Senator Perata and I will be there, going from district to district, campaigning up and down the state to make sure that this will pass. With your help we can do it. Thank you very much, and I’ll be back. Thank you. (Applause)
