Save Our Springs Alliance In Hot Water?

It's been a rollercoaster week for the Save Our Springs Alliance. The on Monday announced that it had finally collected the necessary 20,000 signatures to add an amendment to the ballots in May that would effectively make it city public policy to prevent development in the Edwards Aquifer, chiefly by restricting the tax incentives typically offered to land developers and discouraging large corporations from moving in. Case in point is semiconductor giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which a few weeks ago all but settled into the area by renting out temporary offices while their new sprawling campus in Southwest Austin is being completed. It was a huge success for SOS, but it wasn't to last long: today an ethics complaint was filed against them, claiming that they "failed to report campaign contributions and spending":

Wes Benedict, a Libertarian Party leader, said in his complaint, filed late Monday, that those expenditures and any contributions should have been reported in January and that a political action committee should have been formed specifically for these measures.

Bunch said there was no need to report contributions and expenditures until the petition was certified by city officials.

The new Clean Water Clean Government political action committee, of which Bunch is assistant treasurer, filed with the city clerk on Monday to support the measures.

The water quality amendment petitions were submitted to the city clerk Monday. The open government petitions have not been filed.

All this legal maneuvering smacks of some fishy corporate lobbying, in our humble and, admittedly, skewed opinion.

And, from an entirely different different perspective, the Statesman published a compelling editorial on Sunday that essentially argues that the successful passing of SOS's proposals would be a "economic disaster for Austin"