Sunday, April 9, 2006

Re "A whodunit without end," March 24: The Bee failed to note that the Assembly passed a $4.15 billion bond measure for flood control in time for the June ballot. I urged my colleagues to vote for this measure, pointing out that lives are at stake as well as tens of billions of dollars in potential flood damages that could wipe out our regional economy. The Assembly's passage of the $4.15 billion bond measure for flood control improvements late in the evening on March 15 received a strong, bipartisan vote of 68-4 in favor of the measure.

Had the Senate acted to put this measure on the June ballot, I believe that we could have convinced not only Northern Californians but also Southern Californians to vote for it. Southern Californians have a direct stake in funding our levee system - the drinking water for 23 million Southern Californians is at risk if our levee system fails.

The strong bipartisan vote for a major flood control bond in the Assembly is progress that I believe we can and should build on to get a bond measure, including flood control funding at the very least, to the ballot in November.

- Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento