Spend budget surplus on plan to desalinate water

Gov. Gavin Newsom must stop dancing around the permanent solution to our drought that is right in front of us. Instead of contemplating individual refund checks, he should invest a significant amount of the projected budget surplus of nearly $100 billion in desalination plants.

If millions of us have to move out of the state due to the paucity of our water supply, it will result in tumbling property values and property taxes and an inability to attract new business to California. We have the brains and technology to solve the inherent challenges. There could not be a more purposeful use for these surplus funds than safeguarding our gorgeous state for generations to come.

— Gayle Atkinson, Novato