PLAN TOP-HEAVY ON CONSTRUCTION.

Byline: Staff Writer

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and environmental groups pushed Tuesday to include parks, open space and water-quality funding in the first installment of the $222 billion infrastructure package that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hopes to get on the June ballot.

Schwarzenegger's 10-year public-works improvement plan currently includes more than $100 billion for transportation, nearly $50 billion for school construction and maintenance and almost $20 billion for prisons.

But the mayor and environmentalists said the governor's plan puts too much emphasis on construction and not enough on protecting the state's natural resources.

``We believe the next infrastructure bond needs to have a green component - an infrastructure investment in parks and open space,'' Villaraigosa said at a news conference adjacent to the Los Angeles River.

``We need to see funding for urban parks, open space, water quality, urban forestry.''

A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman said open-space projects are a lower priority for the infrastructure bond measure because voters have previously passed bond proposals for parks, although the governor is willing to reconsider his stance.

``We need to continue to focus on those infrastructure needs that are going to focus on people's quality of life that haven't been addressed during the past five years,'' said Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson. ``We have had some park bonds that have passed, but we haven't necessarily had any roads built because of any bonds that have passed during the past five years.''

The deadline is Friday for getting a bond measure on the June ballot. The Legislature and the Governor's Office hope to finalize a bill this week for the first of several bond measures totaling $68 billion over 10 years.

If voters approve the measure, plans call for the state to pay the balance of the $222 billion in projects using other funding sources.

The governor has pushed for $25 billion in the first bond measure, but the amount is still up for debate and some lawmakers favor a smaller bond proposal.

That adds urgency to pleas by green project proponents who want to make sure some of the money is earmarked for upgrading drinking-water systems in poor communities, developing parks in urban neighborhoods and revitalizing the Los Angeles River.

``The real debate is going on right now, today - the debate about what's in and what's out,'' said Steve Johnson of the Nature Conservancy.

Staff Writer Harrison Sheppard contributed to this report.

kerry.cavanaugh, [phone] kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com