stockton, calif.<u+2014>forget about the hillary clinton and donald trump show; californians are being bombarded with competing tv and newspaper ads about a ballot initiative known as <u+201c>prop 53,<u+201d> some featuring a frowning gov. jerry brown complaining about the <u+201c>one millionaire<u+201d> who is behind it. that man is<u+00a0>dean <u+201c>dino<u+201d> cortopassi, a wealthy farmer who, with his wife joan, has bankrolled<u+00a0>the campaign to approve proposition 53,<u+00a0>which would make it tougher for the state government to fund high-price high-impact public-works projects. the cortopassis have donated $5.5 million to promote the measure, while the <u+201c>no<u+201d> side, led by state officials as well as labor and business groups, has raised more than $20 million to defeat it. two of the public works projects that could be subject to prop 53<u+2014>high speed rail and huge tunnels to transport water to southern california<u+2014>are hallmarks of the democratic gov. brown<u+2019>s administration. the battle over prop 53 has pitted the state<u+2019>s 78-year-old<u+00a0>top politician against a 79-year-old farmer, who is a former republican who switched to the democratic party two years ago. california<u+2019>s propositions are proposals citizens can get on the ballot and which become law if approved at the ballot box. if passed, prop 53<u+00a0>would require a public vote before any revenue bonds can be issued on state projects costing more than $2 billion. mr. cortopassi said bonds for such projects, which currently can be issued by the legislature without a public vote, amount to a blank check. <u+201c>the biggest damn problem we have is debt that is going to crush millions of people,<u+201d> said mr. cortopassi, banging his fist on a wooden table at his office, which is surrounded by orchards outside this central valley city. he cited bonds issued over the past decade to help finance the rebuilding of the san francisco-oakland bay bridge. the cost of that project soared from an initial estimate of about $1 billion to more than $6 billion when it was completed in 2013.<u+00a0>that spending added to the state<u+2019>s total public indebtedness of more than $340 billion, putting in jeopardy future spending on everything from schools to libraries, he said. <u+2018> my wife and i said: <u+2018>somebody has to do something about this. <u+2019> gov. brown and many business and labor groups say adoption of prop 53 would hamstring<u+00a0>critical projects, including emergency<u+00a0>efforts<u+00a0>to replace damaged roads and buildings after an earthquake. <u+201c>cortopassi wants to run the risk of utter economic catastrophe for california,<u+201d> gov. brown said in an interview on friday. <u+201c>it would lead to more lawsuits and delays that california doesn<u+2019>t need.<u+201d> still, the state<u+2019>s legislative analyst<u+2019>s office has concluded the initiative, if it becomes law, likely would cover relatively few projects because those requiring more than $2 billion in funding are a rarity. mr. cortopassi also said the measure wouldn<u+2019>t undermine emergency work,<u+00a0>since<u+00a0>disaster-relief funding<u+00a0>usually<u+00a0>doesn<u+2019>t come from revenue bonds. prop 53 illustrates a quirk of california politics that favors groups and individuals with the resources to gather the hundreds of thousands of signatures typically needed to put a proposal up for a referendum vote. <u+201c>the danger is we have measures before voters that don<u+2019>t necessarily reflect the public<u+2019>s will,<u+201d> said james mayer, president and chief executive officer of california forward, a nonprofit government reform group in sacramento. california forward hasn<u+2019>t taken a position on prop 53. his detractors say mr. cortopassi is more narrowly motivated to starve funding for a project he has vigorously opposed<u+2014>$17 billion twin tunnels<u+00a0>that would divert water to southern california from the state<u+2019>s northern mountains, bypassing the ecologically sensitive sacramento-san joaquin delta where mr. cortopassi has built a farming conglomerate. he and many other farmers in the delta oppose the tunnel project, in part because they fear it would seriously damage their ecosystem. mr. cortopassi<u+00a0>insists<u+00a0>his position on the tunnels has nothing to do with proposition 53, saying that assertion is being made as part of a smear campaign by opponents who have an interest in maintaining the status quo. other supporters of the proposition include taxpayer rights groups. <u+201c>every porker has their snout in the public trough lined up on the other side,<u+201d> he said, referring to special-interest projects aimed at benefiting a politician<u+2019>s constituency, known as pork-barrel politics. rather, he said he came to view of debt as a public threat after watching his hometown of stockton go through a financial crisis after the 2008-2009 recession that saw the city go it into and then out of bankruptcy proceedings, eventually making deep spending cuts, including the closure of a public library near the working-class neighborhood in which he grew up. the son of italian immigrants, mr. cortopassi went on to amass large farming and agribusiness holdings. <u+201c>in the immigrant community i grew up in, the american dream was getting ahead,<u+201d> he said. mr. cortopassi said he and his wife started taking out full-page newspaper ads in 2014 titled <u+201c>liar, liar, pants on fire<u+201d> that attacked mr. brown and other lawmakers<u+2019> use of debt to achieve balanced budgets. in early 2015, he filed the application for proposition 53. <u+201c>my wife and i said: <u+2018>somebody has to do something about this<u+2019>,<u+201d> he said. write to jim carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com
farmer takes on state, labor and business interests over funding california mega-projects   - wsj
jim carlton