N

It’s nice to have a little extra. Like $40 billion-plus in bonds approved by voters last year to improve everything from highways to habitat.

“It’s an exciting time. For once we have some money that can go to fundamental needs that have been unmet for a long time,” said Lois Wolk, chairwoman of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

Lawmakers are so excited by the voters’ generosity that they have introduced over 100 separate bills to spend the money in Propositions 1B through 1E, and Proposition 84.

“I liken it to sharks in the water who smell the blood of new money,” quipped Roger Niello, R-Sacramento, vice-chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.

In the Assembly alone, more than 70 bills would create new programs or write specific rules on how to spend the windfall. Officially, “each bill will live or die on its own merits,” said Richard Stapler in press office of Assembly Speaker Fabian N