Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing for a new fee or tax to clean up tainted water and that's dividing Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento.
The Governor wants to charge utility customers up to $10 extra a month to tackle contaminated supplies in low-income and rural areas.
The head of the state Water Resources Control Board, Joaquin Esquivel says he thinks it's fair to for users to pay what he calls a 'small amount of money' to fix the problems:
"As Californians, we all pay for a wide range of public goods and services even though some governmental programs disproportionately benefit some communities more than others," Esquivel said.
But Cindy Tuck, who heads the state association of Water Agencies, says she thinks this is just a bad idea:
"The tax and the implementation costs for it would add to the cost of water. The way it's proposed, it would have about 3,000 local systems across the state implemented," she said.
Her group is backing a rival Democratic plan to the Governor's that would use the budget surplus to pay for water clean-up.
-KNX 1070
