SACRAMENTO, CA – Proposition 39 Co-Chairs Tom Steyer and Senator Kevin de León issued the following statement responding to the Governor’s latest proposal for expending the Proposition 39 funds dedicated to energy efficiency projects: “Proposition 39 was years in the making. After several unsuccessful legislative attempts, we appealed directly to the voters. In that initiative we pledged strict accountability using benchmarking and exacting measurement and verification to guarantee the voters will see energy efficiency results and maximum job creation. After Election Day, we held stakeholder meetings and hearings across the state on how to best allocate the Proposition 39 funds and we concluded that that smartest investment is energy efficiency retrofits for schools, to create long-term cost savings and direct more money back into the classroom. We applaud the Governor for targeting schools for these funds. Our belief is that the funding formula needs to focus on the accountability and transparency necessary to meet the spirit and intent of Proposition 39. While the funding formula reflected in the Governor’s May Revision needs additional work to address the accountability and transparency standards that serve the public interest, we are grateful that the Governor is working with us to achieve the promises of Proposition 39. We believe in the next few weeks we can work out an implementation plan to achieve Proposition 98 deficit reductions while laying the groundwork to report back to the voters the precise outcome of the expenditure of this public money. Our goal is that at the conclusion of this program we will be able to tell the voters exactly how many kilowatts per hour were saved, how much greenhouse emission reductions were achieved, how many jobs were created, how many dollars were put back in the classroom, and how student achievement and health were improved. We look forward to working with the Governor to deliver very clear and measurable results.”