The bond would pay for a water storage and delivery system for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta - as well as environmental mitigation and other spending projects.  It's a bipartisan deal between lawmakers and former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger - and it was supposed to be voted on two years ago.  But a later deal moved it to this fall, in hopes of a more favorable political environment.

 

Earlier this month, Assembly Speaker John Pérez told reporters he wants to slim down the water bond - but keep it on this year's ballot.  But now, Governor Brown is suggesting a water project might not need the bond money at all.  He told reporters after an event in Orange County that the "big water users" will pay for a project that gives them a reliable water supply - and lawmakers should "take a hard look" at whether the bond should go before voters.  Brown's tax initiative is also heading for the November ballot.

 

 

 

Governor Brown wrapped up a two-day trip to Southern California Thursday.  That's where he pitched his proposed sales and income tax initiative and the rest of the platform he discussed in this week's State of the State address.

 

On Thursday, he spent an hour meeting privately with 50 Orange County CEO's and top-level executives from major industries.  Lucy Dunn with the Orange County Business Council says Brown was well-received.

 

Dunn: "When you talk about a tax measure that funds education, that gets our business community going - well, this is something that's really of interest to us.  So I would say that they were very open to his proposal.

 

Dunn says much of the discussion focused not on the governor's tax initiative but on what the governor could do to help businesses deal with the state's regulatory system.

 

Brown later spoke to a crowd in San Diego.