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State must acceleratewater-storage projects

Water, water everywhere and nary a drop to drink. A parade of atmospheric rivers is drenching California with an estimated 22 trillion gallons of rain, enough to cover the entire state with up to six inches of water. Tragically, we’re capturing only a fraction of it while $2.7 billion approved by voters in 2014 to expand water storage sits largely idle.

The seven projects included in Prop. 1 have the collective capacity to increase the state’s water storage by 900 billion gallons, enough to supply up to 2.7 million homes for a year. But nearly five years after initial funding was awarded, none of the projects has yet broken ground.

It’s absolutely critical we accelerate these projects to begin storing water that can help us blunt future droughts. California and the federal government must work together on ways to streamline permits for infrastructure projects essential for adapting to climate change.

Jim WundermanPresident and CEO, Bay Area CouncilPleasant Hill

Concord should reopenNWS project to bids

The East Bay Times hit the nail on the head with its editorial on Jan. 6 calling for a better master developer than Seeno for the Naval Weapons Station (“Concord can do better than the Seeno III group,” Page A6).

Seeno and its Concord First Partners have proven incapable of meeting promises made to Concord during the selection process and those negotiated with construction unions over one year prior. Now Seeno wants Concord residents to bear the burden of its shortcomings by changing the specific plan to incorporate over 30% more homes, resulting in mind-boggling traffic in North Concord and the 680/242/4 highway interchange.

Changing the specific plan requires allowing other developers to submit competitive term sheets for comparison. It’s not possible to know if Concord is getting the best deal without having another developer make a counteroffer to Seeno’s.

Council must let the exclusive negotiating agreement with Seeno expire and proceed with a competitive process to get the best deal.

Hope JohnsonConcord

FTB is wrongfullyreporting inflation relief

As if delays and glitches in sending state Inflation Relief payments weren’t bad enough, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) is causing more headaches by notifying the IRS that many of the payments may be subject to federal income tax.

In its November Tax News newsletter, FTB stated recipients of payments of $600 or more will receive IRS Form 1099-MISC. This alerts the IRS to look for the income on your tax return. However, these payments are most likely not taxable for federal, and definitely not taxable for California, but few taxpayers will be aware of these rules and may pay taxes they don’t owe. FTB has not explained why they are treating these payments differently from previous years’ Golden State Stimulus payments, for which they did not report anything to the IRS, nor why they have not just asked the IRS for guidance.

Thanks for nothing, FTB.

Mark BoleWalnut Creek

House Republicansplot political revenge

So here we are in 2023 with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. This clown car includes names like Greene, Boebert, Jacobs, Gaetz, Scalise, and of course, McCarthy from California.

What is their agenda for America with an ongoing pandemic, climate change, police violence, gun control, voting rights, abortion rights, and so on? Political revenge.

The minority party led by an insurrectionist has no plans to improve the lives of anyone but themselves: greed, anger and power. And while they’re at it, good luck ever explaining George Santos.

Stuart ShicoffMartinez

Let’s celebrate heroesof the Jan. 6 breach

Re. “Survey: Few in GOP see Jan. 6 as a tragic day,” Page A1, Jan. 7:

Jan. 6, 2021, is a day that should live in infamy. That was the day a mob of insurrectionists, at the invitation of the former president, stormed the Capitol in a failed attempt to overturn the free and fair election of Joseph Biden. Many more people would have died if it hadn’t been for the bravery of the Capitol Police and the leadership of congressional Democrats.

Last week, House Republicans, some of whom were complicit in the attempt to change the presidential election outcome, took control of Congress because regular people seemed to have forgotten the horror of that infamous day and reelected these traitors.

Let’s remind everyone which party (Republicans) tried to destroy our democracy and which party (Democrats) saved it. Let’s start commemorating January 6 as “Defend Democracy Day.” If we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

Sandy WhiteFremont