BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 561 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 13, 2011 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT Cameron Smyth, Chair AB 561 (Gorell) - As Amended: April 4, 2011 SUBJECT : Ventura County Watershed Protection District: indebtedness. SUMMARY : Authorizes the Ventura County Watershed Protection District (District) to borrow money and incur indebtedness to finance the construction and reconstruction of District facilities and specifies that each loan incurred shall be authorized by a resolution adopted by a majority vote of the board of supervisors. EXISTING LAW establishes the District and gives the District various powers including the power to incur indebtedness and to issue bonds. FISCAL EFFECT : None COMMENTS : 1)Existing law establishes the Ventura County Watershed Protection District. The purposes of the District are to provide flood control within the District and to provide protection against flood water that originates outside the District but flows into the District. The District is also authorized to conserve flood water for beneficial use. The District may capture flood water for groundwater recharge. The District may also conserve flood water in any manner that protects life and property. 2)Since the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have embarked on a comprehensive evaluation of flood control infrastructure on a national, state-wide, and local level. Through this joint technical assessment and re-evaluation process with our federal partners, the District has identified more than $200 million of flood protection capital projects which need to be designed and built to protect more than $8 billion of property and improvements in Ventura County alone. Flooding in Ventura County adversely affects thousands of residents and disrupts major regional transportation AB 561 Page 2 corridors, hindering the vitality and growth of our communities. Currently the District, like many other agencies, does not have the revenues in hand to move forward with many of the identified critical infrastructure improvements. Based on the current language of the District Act, it appears to provide the District Board the discretion to incur debt only after the existence of an emergency is declared. The District Board needs the ability to leverage current revenues through borrowing to re-construct its flood control facilities to proactively prevent damage; not wait until the damage has occurred which increases the cost of reconstruction and unduly burdens taxpaying constituents. In January of 2009, the National Committee on Levee Safety issued a draft report which recommended establishing the National Levee Rehabilitation, Improvement, and Flood Mitigation Fund to aid in the rehabilitation, improvement or removal of deficient levees. Although the National Committee did not define the mechanism to be used to provide this aid, a portion of this aid could be set up as a revolving loan program. The District needs the ability to react quickly to apply for state and federal borrowing opportunities which may provide low and no interest loans for levee rehabilitation work, further leveraging existing revenues. 3)Support arguments: Supporters argue that having clear discretion to incur indebtedness to prevent flood damages from occurring is the best way to provide flood protection sooner than later. Opposition arguments: Opposition could argue that the District's enabling Act already allows for the District to incur indebtedness and that the provisions of this measure are not necessary. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION : Support Calleguas Municipal Water District AB 561 Page 3 Ventura County Board of Supervisors Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by : Katie Kolitsos / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958