State hijacks Newport’s Prop. 12 funds

Alex Coolman

NEWPORT BEACH -- The $13 million in voter-approved state funds promised

for a major Back Bay dredging effort has been hijacked for other projects

by the Legislature’s budget committee, the city’s lobbyist in Sacramento

said this week.

The loss of the Proposition 12 funding, if it cannot be rectified, will

be a major blow to the long-planned, $30-million project to scoop the

muck out of Upper Newport Bay, said Dave Kiff, deputy city manager.

“The money literally is the local match that we were going to put up

against federal dollars to complete the project,” Kiff said. “If for some

reason we can’t come up with the local share, the project doesn’t

happen.”

Prop. 12, approved by California voters in March, allocates up to $2.1

billion for the improvement of state parks, recreation and wildlife

facilities.

Ken Emanuels, who represents the city in Sacramento, said the Budget

Conference Committee doled out more than $70 million for projects under

the section of the bond measure dedicated to coastal projects, while only

$64 million was available to spend.

Left out was the $13-million Newport Beach funding package that was

written into the text of Prop. 12, although miscellaneous items -- from

beach access trails to campground developments -- made it onto the list.

“We get zero, even though we’re listed in the bond act,” Emanuels said.

He said the Back Bay project seemed to have been passed over in the

budget process because there was not a proposal worked out specifying

exactly how the money would be spent here.

Plans did not call for the money to be spent until the next fiscal year,

and the officials who were counting on the $13 million to be available

assumed that the text of the bond act would guarantee delivery of the

funding.

The Prop. 12 allocations are up for approval by both houses of the

Legislature, a process that is expected to take a day or two, before

being passed on to Gov. Gray Davis.

City officials are pushing for Davis to cut enough of the added projects

to restore Newport’s money before he gives it the final go-ahead.

“As long as he makes deletions that free up money, there will be funds

available,” said Bill Ahern, director of the California Coastal

Conservancy, the group that will be responsible for distributing the

money.

Kiff is optimistic the entire amount will be restored.

But Ahern said he thought it was likely, even if Davis did intervene,

that less than $13 million might end up going to Newport.

“It was very clear in the bond act, and that’s usually the guidance that

the governor and the Legislature use,” Ahern said. “But there was so much

enthusiasm for these bond funds that they’ve oversubscribed it.”

Emanuels said the hurried nature of the budget negotiations may have also

contributed to the surprising outcome.

“The process was unusually disorderly,” he said. “There was a decided

lack of discipline and there was no legislator who was willing to stand

up and say that it is inappropriate to spend 100% of the funds two months

after the bond is passed.”

Sen. Ross Johnson, (R-Irvine), who lobbied heavily for the inclusion of

Newport’s dredging project in the bond act, expressed dismay about the

monetary fiasco.

“He’s outraged,” said spokeswoman Susie Swatt. “This is a deal that was

made last year, and now it appears it has to be renegotiated all over

again.”