Pumped up about governor’s support

When that $38.4 million project you’ve been promoting for seven years

has only netted $1 million in funding, any help you can get is

welcome.

Given that, Newport Beach Rep. Chris Cox must have been pleased to

see Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s endorsement of the Back Bay

restoration project. We are.

Cox has been seeking a $13-million chunk of the 2006 federal

budget to help fund the restoration, which would help protect the

1,000-acre Upper Newport Bay -- Southern California’s largest tidal

wetland. The project, which includes dredging 2 million cubic yards

of silt from the Back Bay, received only $1 million in the 2005

budget.

Before getting the nod from Schwarzenegger, the congressman had

been working overtime to drum up support from congressional leaders.

Cox played host last month to Ohio Rep. David Hobson -- the chairman

of the House subcommittee on appropriations for energy and water

development -- in a bid to build support for Newport Beach’s request.

And there is some urgency to the matter, as some of the local

matching grants for the project will lose their guaranteed status

after 2006. If the local money is lost, the restoration may be lost,

regardless of whether the federal funding comes in or not.

Whether the governor can sway enough in Congress to get Newport

Beach the entire $13 million, or even a fraction of it, remains to be

seen. Schwarzenegger hasn’t promised any effort to lobby Congress on

behalf of the project. So far, the extent of his involvement has been

a letter to Cox expressing his endorsement.

Still, it is commendable that Schwarzenegger recognizes the

benefits of the project, not only to Newport-Mesa but also to Orange

County and to the state. And it’s a credit to him that he’s willing

to go public with his backing.

If nothing else, Cox can’t be blamed for failing to get enough

muscle behind the effort.