FRESNO (KMJ) — A measure which would divert funds outlined for the state’s high speed rail project, and use it to pay for more accessible water, may not have enough support to go through.
The California Water Alliance’s ‘CA Water 4 All’ measure aims to use bullet train money to pay for improved water storage, now has a quarter of the signatures needed to put it on the November 2016 ballot.
“The California Water Priorities initiative, which is circulating to qualify for the November 2016 ballot, has reached 25 percent of its goal by nearly doubling it’s output of signatures gathered in nearly four weeks”, says the group’s Executive Director Aubrey Bettencourt.
But despite her declaration that the public are behind the initiative, recent figures from FM3 research disagree. They undertook a survey of 601 California voters likely to cast their ballot in November 2016, and found only two in five voters express support for the measure.
“For measures with organized, funded opposition such a weak start is a marker of almost certain defeat”, says Dave Metz, who worked on the research.
“Especially for measures that are contentious, where there are people who are likely to oppose it when measures start well under 50 percent support it makes it very very difficult for them to push back over that 50 percent level by election day”.
When it comes to opposition, State Senator Jim Nielsen is on that team. He says water storage has already been taken care of by the state government.
“In 2009, a very balanced new water policy was written and passed and it accomplished co-equal goals. The co-equal goals meant that humans had a water right, and that water right included to produce agricultural commodities…food…for human beings. So we’ve already addressed that”.
The High Speed Rail Authority themselves state that the voters of California have approved both water storage and high-speed rail, and shouldn’t now have to pick one or the other.
