SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers from both parties are calling for more stringent oversight of a clean jobs initiative after an Associated Press report found that a fraction of the promised jobs have been created.
The report also found that the state has no comprehensive list to show how much work has been done or energy saved, three years after voters approved a ballot measure to raise taxes on corporations and generate clean-energy jobs.
The Legislature decided to send half the money to fund clean energy projects in schools, promising to generate more than 11,000 jobs each year. Instead, only 1,700 jobs have been created in three years.
“It’s clear to me that the Legislature should immediately hold oversight hearings to get to the bottom of why yet another promise to the voters has been broken,” said Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff, R-San Dimas, in a news release Monday.
The AP reported that three years after voters passed Proposition 39, money is trickling in at a slower-than-anticipated rate, and more than half of the $297 million given to schools so far has gone to consultants and energy auditors.
The board created to oversee the project and submit annual progress reports to the Legislature has never met.
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, the Los Angeles Democrat who was the primary booster of Proposition 39, said Monday that the measure is successful and it is too soon to assess its effectiveness.
The State Energy Commission, which oversees Proposition 39 spending, could not provide any data about completed projects or calculate energy savings because schools are not required to report the results for up to 15 months after completion, said spokeswoman Amber Beck.
Still, Beck said she believes the program is on track.
