The Rev Dr. Rick SchlosserIMPACT’s Recommendation: SUPPORT
SB 867 (Chapter 83, Statutes of 2024) Allen. Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024.
This would authorize the state to incur a general obligation debt of $10 billion to deal with the impacts of climate change. It would fund programs that are long neglected including drinking and ground water resilience; wildfire and forest resilience; coastal and other flooding, drought assistance, heat mitigation, etc.
We passed some of this in 2018 via Prop.68, but by 2020 funds were low. In 2019 the Legislature approved a $21 billion comprehensive bill, but it never got to the ballot. Governor Newsom signed a $536 million urgency bill that year, but it, too, is expended. The impacts from uncertain weather conditions prompted by climate change are never ending. This revenue is not money operating in a vacuum since these funds are combined after disasters with federal funds as well as for ongoing measures to prevent disasters.
CA Secretary of State site: Arguments for and against Prop 4: https://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/propositions/4/index.htm