Proposition 6
“The constitutional amendment creating the Texas water fund to assist in financing water projects in this state.”
If voters approved Proposition 6, the state would create the Texas Water Fund from a budget surplus to fund public water projects and programs.
SUPPORTING VIEWPOINT
Hope Wells
Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs
San Antonio Water System
Q: Why should the average Texan care about this proposition?
A: Well, I’ll give you a little bit of a caveat first. There are some prohibitions on governmental entities like SAWS being able to advocate for passage of a ballot proposition, but we can educate on measures. So, my comments or some are caveated in that way. But to your question about the importance of this measure on the ballot is providing funding opportunities for water projects in the state. The impacts of population growth, limitations on water supply, climate change and drought are really putting pressure on water systems throughout the state to be able to provide adequate supplies. This past session with the budget surplus and historic dollar figures, a lot of folks in the water industry felt that this was a real opportunity to put an infusion of dollars into needed water projects. It would funnel money into a new water supply fund to create new water supplies like desalination, ASR (Aquifer Storage and Recovery), produced water, and other types of new supply, and then it also funnels money to existing water development board programs.
Q: Why does your organization support it?
A: It’s a little tricky for us to be able to just say support a ballot measure, because there’s a provision that says we can’t actually advocate on ballot measures. But certainly, within providing education, we can say that the way that this ballot proposition would impact us is to provide us an opportunity for new funding mechanisms at the state level. It would provide SAWS opportunity to draw state dollars for new water supply, for water loss mitigation and other types of water project infrastructure needs.
– This Q&A was edited and condensed. Interview conducted by Jemareon Moore, Jacob Lopez, and Valeria Medina.
OPPOSING VIEWPOINT
Fran Rhodes
President
True Texas Project
Q: Why should the average Texan care about Proposition 6?
A: Constitutional amendments are generally worded in a vague and nonspecific manner. It is important that voters do their own research, read the enabling legislation and understand exactly what they are voting for. Our recommendations are just that — recommendations. We urge voters to inform themselves, study the materials and make good decisions. Whether people agree or disagree with our recommendations, we want them to know the facts.
Q: Why does your organization oppose it?
A: We strongly oppose this opposition of “budget busting” amendments because of a broken spending limit. Both houses can have a simple majority vote. They passed a budget 41% higher than the last one, and these amendments would add $12 to 13 million dollars to a bloated budget.
Prop 6, along with 5, 7 and 8 are only on the ballot because the legislature did not want to put that spending into the budget. Doing so would have broken the spending limits (which can be done with a simple majority vote of both houses). But busting the spending limits doesn’t look good on a mailer. So they put these issues into amendments. The legislature could have had the courage to either cut spending somewhere else, or break the spending limit, but they did not. They passed a budget that is 41% higher than the last one, and these amendments would add another $12 to 13 million to that already over bloated budget. We strongly oppose all 4 of these “budget busting” amendments.
– This Q&A was edited for clarity. Interview conducted by Johnathan Pena.
