BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chairman
626 (Eng)
Hearing Date: 08/17/2009 Amended: 08/17/2009
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy Policy Vote: NR&W 7-3
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BILL SUMMARY: This bill requires the Department of Water
Resources to allocate previously appropriated bond funds for
disadvantaged communities proportionately across the regions of
the state.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Updating grant guidelines Minor and absorbable Bonds *
Cost pressures on bond Unknown, but minor pressures Bonds *
funds
* Proposition 84.
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STAFF COMMENTS:
Proposition 84 authorizes the issuance of $5.4 billion in bonds
for a variety of natural resources programs, including water
supply and management programs. Proposition 84 includes $1
billion for integrated regional water management, of which $900
million is allocated by region.
SB 1XX (Perata, 2008) appropriated $821 million from Proposition
84, including $139 million for integrated regional water
management projects. Of that $139 million, SB 1XX appropriated
$100 million for grants to local water agencies to implement
water management projects and $39 million for planning grants,
local groundwater projects, and CalFed science research grants.
(Of this appropriation, the Department of Finance indicates that
$91 million is from regional Integrated Regional Water
Management funds.) SB 1XX specified that the Department of Water
Resources is to allocate at least 10 percent of those
appropriated funds to support the participation of disadvantaged
communities in integrated regional water management planning and
for projects to address critical water needs in disadvantaged
communities.
This bill specifies that, of the $139 million mentioned above
that was appropriated by SB 1XX, 10 percent of the funds awarded
in each region shall support disadvantaged communities. In other
words, 10 percent of the funds allocated to each region of the
state shall be used for disadvantaged communities within that
region, as opposed to setting aside 10 percent of the total
funding for disadvantaged communities statewide.
The bill also requires the Department to report to the
Legislature on the implementation of the bill by July 2010.
AB 626 (Eng)
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The department indicates that it already intends to comply with
the requirements of the bill, and therefore does not anticipate
any additional costs to revise grant guidelines or procedures.
Because the funds appropriated by SB 1XX are generally to be
granted on a competitive basis, it is possible that the
allocation of funds within any given region would not result in
10 percent of the funds in that region being allocated to
disadvantaged communities, in the absence of this bill.
Therefore, it is possible that there may be some minor shifting
of grant funds within the regions. However, the Department
indicates that any shift in funds (and therefore any cost
pressures) would be minor.
In addition, because of the statewide freeze on the distribution
of bond funds, the Department has not yet begun accepting grant
applications and does not intend to do so until the fall.
Therefore the bill should not pose any delays to the
implementation of SB 1XX.