BOARD01955

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

presentations here. We very much appreciate you taking your time
from your busy schedule to be here. We. would appreciate your
comments and thoughts.

Governor Love: I will only talk very briefly, but I did want to co~e
by for a moment and indicate the importance that I assigned to what I
you are doing here today. I know it's repetitive to this group, but
I wanted to assure you of my position that Colorado's water is number
one on my list of importance. It is undoubtedly true by virtue of
several historical happenings that we have been put in the position
where we don't get to legally keep as much as we should have. The
more important point is that water which does legally belong to
Colorado is not being put to use. Therefore, in my view, it is con-
tinually subject to the potential danger of being taken away by
uses elsewhere.

We have a particular problem in view of the circumstances today.
One, the budgetary crunch, the determination of the administration
to .find ways to limit expenditures this fiscal year and to hold down
the increases next year. We look at a budget that I suppose some
60 to 70% cannot be touched. They end up looking at the highway
'trust funds, reclamation funds, and others. Add to it the fact that
somehow public acceptance of reclamation projects has been a declining
thing in recent years and it all builds toward a real crisis in
funding these programs.

Larry may have told you that he and I intend to go to Washington the
first of next week to meet with a group of administration officials
and with the congressional delegation to espouse our position. I
believe the position will be primarily the one which comes out of
this meeting. I can't tell you how strongly I stress the need for
a unified state position. We are in a posture where we will not be
able to get funding this year for each and every project in the state
of Colorado. To arrive at a realistic program, both in the Congress
of the United States and with the administration, we badly need some
decisions as are being considered here today.

I strongly urge that you recognize the difficult situation we are
faced with. We must have a state-wide view towards the protection I
of the water that we are rightfully entitled to. Otherwise, we may
end up with nothing. I know it will be difficult to assign an objec-
tive state-wide priority as you look at the particular projects
that you are most interested in. However, at the present time, I see
no way that we can secure the overall budget that we would like to

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