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<br />MR. SPARKS: I have previously sent to the board ananalysis~of our <br />con!ltruction program, based upon :anticipated: revenues. ,If you will, <br />recall, under the present funding schedule it would be about 1985 <br />before we could construct all of the projects which have currently been <br />authorized under our construction f~d. . It is almost useless to try <br />to get a project authorized today if we can 't construct it in the I <br />immediate future. The tremendous inflation in construction costs, <br />together with everything else, make it impossible to compute .the cost <br />of a project if we are not going to construct it for four or five <br />years. It builds .up a false hope on the part of the people who are <br />sponsoring the project. . As .a result, we have curtailed ,our feasi- <br />bility investigations rather severely. ' There is no~point :itLour <br />coming up with eight or ten projects every, year if they are not going <br />to be funded. <br /> <br />This is a critical ?rea, particularly in view of the proposed federal <br />policy that the state put up some money for federal projects for con- <br />struction. <br /> <br />The construction fund has been a tremendously valuable asset:to the <br />people of this state and we have constructed some very worthwhile <br />projects. We should. construct a lot more. ~ut the amount: of money <br />that we have received has been rather pitiful. I noticed that one of <br />the candidates: for governor, who recently withdrew, Senator Shoemaker, <br />advocated that the state put up at least 50 million dollars a year for <br />water project construction. I am sure that we could all agree on that. <br />I think there is, a great deal. of sympathy: on the part of all the <br />candidates to do more in this field. I know there is a great deal of <br />sympathy in the legislature. The, present governor strongly supports <br />additional appropriations. The problem is a limitation on state <br />spending. <br /> <br />As you know, we have a seven percent limitation by statute. The budget, <br />in one year cannot exceed seven percent of the budget of the past year. <br />That is an overall state budget. So, essentially, we are ahead of <br />California and Proposition 13. We already have some limitations in <br />that field. <br /> <br />We have a difficult problem in trying to get funds from the general I <br />fund. We did get one million dollars. for this year, which: is the <br />largest amount that we have ever received from the general fund. The <br />legislature did, a year a,go or two years ago" dedicate a portion of <br />the mineral leasing fund to the construction fund. Under that bill, <br />we are getting about a million and a half dollars a year. If it were <br />-not for that, we wouldn't be in:business at all. The million and a <br />half is ,about half of our requirements. I have proposed this past year, <br />to the legislature and in the memorandum I sent to the board that we <br /> <br />-20- <br />