“California already has some of the highest tax burdens in the country,” said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in Sacramento. “Now they are seeking to put more debt on the state’s credit card. They need to reduce spending in other areas. They are providing medical coverage to undocumented immigrants, and spending billions on high speed rail. There is no accountability, just a reflexive impulse to spend and spend and spend. They need to manage our money better.”

Bonds are like IOUs. The state sells them to investors, and then pays them back with interest, usually over 30 or 40 years. Supporters say borrowing money for long-term public investments is how roads, schools, airports, dams and other projects have been built for generations, similar to a family buying a home with a mortgage.

After a decade of severe droughts, heat waves, deadly wildfires and catastrophic storms, including atmospheric rivers in 2017 that nearly caused the collapse of Oroville Dam, the nation’s tallest dam, in Butte County, and $100 million in flooding in downtown San Jose, more than 170 environmental groups and other supporters pushed for a climate bond this year.

The result was pared down from two $15 billion climate measures that had stalled in the Legislature. Similarly, the $10 billion school bond resulted from a bond that was originally proposed to be $14 billion.

If approved by voters, the climate bond funding would be spent as follows:

• $3.8 billion for water projects, including groundwater storage, recycled water, desalination, and reservoirs

• $1.5 billion for wildfire resilience, mainly thinning forests and using controlled burns to reduce risk

• $1.2 billion for sea level rise projects, including restoring beaches, wetlands, coastal bluffs

• $1.2 billion for wildlife, from restoring endangered salmon runs to building freeway crossings for wildlife

• $850 million for renewable energy and clean air programs, including solar, wind and offshore wind

• $700 million for park creation and outdoor access

• $450 million for extreme heat mitigation, such as more green spaces in cities and schools

• $300 million for farm projects such as agricultural water conservation and soil health programs

At least 40% of the bond money is required to be spent in disadvantaged communities, which often have the fewest acres of parks, the most smog, and the most people at risk from heat illness.

“Our historically underserved communities on the front lines of the climate crisis could not afford to wait any longer,” said Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella.

Global temperatures have risen 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, mostly due to the burning of fossil fuels, which traps heat in the atmosphere. The 10 warmest years on Earth since 1850, when consistent modern temperature records began, have all occurred since 2010, according to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is the parent agency of the National Weather Service.

“We’re going to pay either way,” said Sam Hodder, president of Save the Redwoods League, in San Francisco. “If we can invest in forest health and fire resilience, rather than relying entirely of paying the cost of catastrophic wildfire, that’s a bargain. The same is true with floods, protecting coastal communities, and extreme heat waves.”

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