By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – August 10, 2021

It is not hard to find many ways that our current governor, Gavin
Newsom, has failed to solve the many issues facing the State.  In 2014
the voters passed Prop 1, a proposal that would allocate seven and a
half billion dollars in bonds to improve California’s dire water
situation.  Unfortunately only a token amount of the entire sum actually
went towards improving water storage, critical during drought years. 
Plenty of the rest was spent on projects that made environmentalists
happy, but little progress was made towards solving California’s lack of
sufficient water for drinking, agricultural irrigation for food, and
storage for lean water years.  Plenty of that money was spent for stream
restoration and dam removal which only made this problem worse.

Our current lord and master’s solution is water moratoriums,
conservation and restrictions.  Californians are instructed to drink and
use less water.  No doubt farmers will likely be asked to water food
crops less and grocery prices already rapidly increasing from inflation
will only add to that surge.  In 2020 another attempt at adding to the
taxpayer’s burden, proponents sought the passage of yet more bond money
for water infrastructure that likely was fated to follow the earlier
2014 money with no improvement to water supply.  It failed.   Once
burned the voters rebelled.  The largest problem with California’s
archaic method of water distribution is that it is government operated,
and therefore, subject to corruption and mismanagement.  Governor Newsom
inherited this long standing problem and has done nothing to develop a
plan to increase water supplies or shed government mishandling.

California constructed a massive storage and canal system in the 1960’s
and 1970’s designed to accommodate a population of twenty million. 
Since that time the State’s population has grown to nearly forty million
and that water system has deteriorated and been reduced mainly by
Newsom’s allies in the environmental community.  Granted, there is a
need to protect our waterways, stream restoration, and wildlife habitat
for future generations, but not at the cost of doing nothing about
increasing water supplies for drinking and food production.  Several
solutions from the private sector have been offered, desalinization of
ocean water, new water storage facilities for use during the wet season,
and removing water policies and practices from government water boards. 
None has come to pass.  Newsom seems stuck in the mire of water
conservation.

Water is one thing humans cannot do without for any length of time.  It
has been a bone of contention through out history.  It does not have to
be a problem in California, if, our governor would listen to reason. 
That as we have seen on so many issues facing the State is not his
strong suit.  But without the suit, our governor seems not to exist when
it comes to sound policies for governing this State.  As in so many
ways, Governor Newsom plays with wealthy donors, friends and family
while Californians feel the heat of his lack of concern for them.  In
almost every public policy issue the governor has faced since his
election in 2018 problems continue to pile up through bad decisions and
even worse policy.  While the media and his supporters tend to be
charitable, the results have been relatively bleak.  Time for change
anybody?

Immigration is up next.