Compromise Reached on Infrastructure Bond Plan for California

It appears that an infrastructure bond deal may move forward as legislative leaders are reported to have reached a compromise. Both parties have signaled shifts in their positions, with Republicans giving up their demand that the bond package include dollars for surface water storage projects and Democrats abandoning their demand that the package include money for urban parks and natural resource protections.
 
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, predicted that a deal will come together within the next month and be ready for the November ballot: “Not everyone is going to get what they want but California is going to get what it needs.”

The “bond deal” is reported to be in the range of $30 billion to $34 billion. The initial 2006 bond proposal for K-12 schools and higher education totaled $10.3 billion—$7.2 billion for K-12, $1.5 billion for community colleges, and $1.6 billion for the University of California (UC) and the California State University (CSU).

It is unknown, at this time, the total amounts that will be allocated to K-12 schools and higher education in the compromise deal that may now appear on the November 2006 ballot.