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Bill to raise funds to fight pollution dies
SACRAMENTO -- A Valley state senator was thwarted this week in his effort to raise vehicle registration fees to pay for anti-pollution programs -- a defeat that air officials say could hurt efforts to clean the region's notoriously dirty air.
Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, had hoped to give the Valley air district new authority to raise fees by $30. Senate Bill 240 failed to move out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, despite support from environmentalists and farm groups -- two constituencies often at odds.
"I was literally shocked and just completely dumbfounded by the action of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, because everybody supports it now," said Florez, who plans to pursue the proposal again next year.
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Farm groups pleased with governor's vetoes
SACRAMENTO -- Valley farm groups on Monday celebrated Gov. Schwarzenegger's veto of a pair of bills that would have given farmworkers the option to unionize by signing cards instead of casting secret ballots.
The vetoes -- which disheartened the United Farm Workers union -- were among the final bill announcements the governor issued late Sunday night, less than two hours before a midnight deadline to act on legislation passed this year.
The governor also announced the signing of a controversial bill that will raise "smog abatement" fees by $8 per vehicle to pay for alternative fuel research and vehicle replacement programs.
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Stiffer rules could speed cleanup
Is the Valley air district doing all it can to clean the air? Could it be more aggressive?
Five years ago, when The Fresno Bee published a report exposing government neglect in the fight for clean air, officials at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District said they were doing everything possible.
But judges and lawmakers disagreed. Court decisions and new state laws forced the district to make tougher rules.
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State smog test leaves polluters on the road
For almost two decades, experts have said that one good way to reduce smog in places like the Valley is to find and fix the very dirtiest cars and light trucks. So-called gross polluters -- generally those emitting at least twice the allowable pollution -- make up fewer than one vehicle in 10. Yet they account for three-fourths of illegal emissions. [Look up your vehicle's smog test results and compare it with others]
Studies have shown that many of those vehicles somehow evade the Smog Check program, which is supposed to get them off the road. But promising solutions must run a gauntlet of opposition from bureaucrats who won't acknowledge Smog Check's failings -- or accept that an alternative might work better.
Just last year, an analysis showed that Smog Check is as likely to give a polluting vehicle a passing grade as to fail it, and that two in five failing vehicles will fail again within six months of being repaired.
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Longtime political feud plays key role in Valley race
For political junkies, the race for a South Valley Assembly seat has it all -- a long-standing feud, campaign cash pouring in and an unpredictable finish.
Set aside the sizzle, and there are broader implications.
The 30th District is a longtime legislative battleground, one of the few districts in the state where neither party dominates. The GOP candidate has fallen just short in the last three elections.
More evidence of California's dysfunctional Legislature: A bill to raise vehicle registration fees to pay for cleaning up the Valley's dirty air enjoyed the rare combined support of environmentalists and farmers alike. The bill had bipartisan support in the Legislature.
The chairman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee said he agreed with the bill's goals. So he held it in committee, effectively killing it for this session of the Legislature.
Assembly Member Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, apparently was in a snit because several other bills have been held up in the Senate, including one of his own that would allow San Francisco to raise vehicle fees to support its general fund.
Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, offered Senate Bill 240 and worked hard to win support. He got it after making several compromises with powerful interests, and was surprised when the bill stalled. Perhaps he shouldn't be. This is the California Legislature, after all.
Florez's bill would have added up to $30 a year to vehicle registrations in the Valley, with the money going to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. The funds would have been spent on various clean-up programs in an effort to meet federal air quality standards in the Valley, the nation's most polluted air basin.
The air district hopes to raise $200 million for the programs, and the $78 million the added fee would have raised by 2010 would be a significant fraction of that total. The district was counting on that money. But nothing is ever easy in the state Legislature.
It's not over for SB240. Florez says he will bring the measure back next year. Citing the strong support for the bill, Florez hopes to give it an "urgency" tag, which would mean it could go into effect immediately upon passage by the Legislature and the governor's signature.
We hope that works. Cleaning up the Valley's foul air is an expensive undertaking. This bill spreads its portion of that financial burden evenly across every sector of the Valley. It's fair and it will be effective.
That's more than we can say about the political game playing that occupies so much time in Sacramento these days.
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