The Barbed Wire - June 19, 2015

June 19, 2015
2015-16 State Budget Update
Curtailment of Pre-1914 Water Rights Ordered
BDCP Notice of Intent
Notice of Proposed Emergency Actions – Russian River Tributaries
Fish and Game Commission Decline to List Tricolored Blackbird as Endangered
Congress Holds Hearings on Highway Trust Fund
Senate Appropriations Committee Passes the Interior-Environment Spending Bill
BULLETIN BOARD
KEEPING UP
REGULATORY UPDATE

2015-16 State Budget Update

This update reflects the developments of the 2015-16 State Budget Package as approved by the California Legislature this week. 

On Monday, June 15th, the California Legislature approved the 2015-16 State Budget, yet only a handful of budget trailer bills that assist in implementing the State Budget were adopted.  The State Budget Package including the Budget Bill (Assembly Bill 93) and the four trailer bills passed on Monday have been forwarded to the Governor for his consideration in order to meet the July 1st constitutional deadline to have a State spending plan in place.

On Tuesday, June 16th, the Governor and Legislative Leadership announced that a budget agreement had been reached.  In addition, the Governor proclaimed two special sessions to address roads/highways/infrastructure and health care financing.  For the first special session, Fixing California Roads, Highways and Other Infrastructure, the Governor proposes that the Legislature enact permanent and sustainable funding to maintain and repair the State’s transportation and critical infrastructure, improve the State’s key trade corridors, and complement local infrastructure efforts.  For the second special session, Shoring Up Health Care Financing, the Governor proposes that the Legislature enact permanent and sustainable funding to provide at least $1.1 billion annually to stabilize the State’s General Fund costs for Medi-Cal. 

Earlier today, the Legislature completed the adoption of  a substantial number of trailer bills; however, a handful of trailer bills that do not face a July 1st deadline, including the final allocation of Cap-and-Trade proceeds, are being deferred to later in the Session.  Additionally, to reflect the agreement reached on Tuesday, the Legislature adopted a trailer bill (Senate Bill 97) that makes significant revisions to the Budget Bill that had been adopted on Monday. 

Key Issues/Changes for RCRC Member Counties

The 2015-16 State Budget Package as adopted:

  • Changes existing law to make State Payment In-Lieu of Taxes (PILT) payments permissive as opposed to required;  provides $644,000 for PILT for the 2015-16 fiscal year, but does not provide $8 million, as  approved by the Legislature, for previous year’s payments;  
  • Authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board to mandate the consolidation of two or more public water systems, state small water systems, or residences not served by a public water system in a disadvantaged community that is in an unincorporated area or served by a mutual water company;
  • Allocates no funding for Home-to-School Transportation funding;
  • Eliminates the $328.7 million in partial programmatic allocations from the Cap-and-Trade auction proceeds to various agencies in the original budget bill to address allocations of all Cap-and-Trade proceeds as a separate matter in the coming months;
  • Restores the exemption for elected officials in the California Public Employment Retirement System who are currently retired;
  • Completes in full the repayment of all pre-2004 Mandate Claims;
  • Allocates no funding for Williamson Act subventions;
  • Maintains State Responsibility Area (SRA) fees as a source of funding for resource-related programs;
  • Fully funds federal health reform/ Affordable Care Act;
  • Does not restore Medi-Cal reimbursement rate cuts;
  • Allocates $245 million to address counties administration costs for Medi-Cal; and,
  • Provides a modest increase for state fairs.

The Governor is expected to sign the State Budget and budget-related bills into law in the coming days.  It is expected he will use his line-item veto authority on a number of items.  Once this process is completed, RCRC staff will provide a comprehensive 2015-16 State Budget Summary.

Curtailment of Pre-1914 Water Rights Ordered

On June 12, 2015, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) issued curtailment notices to pre-1914 appropriative claims commencing during or after 1903 within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River watershed and Delta until further notice.  

The State Water Board has been monitoring diversion records and flow conditions within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River watershed and Delta.  Due to limited precipitation and snowpack runoff, the current flows are insufficient to satisfy all diversion demands under senior rights.

The pre-1914 curtailment notice can be accessed here.

The State Water Board will continue to monitor diversion demands, weather forecasts and stream gages.  Water right holders are asked to monitor their email and the State Water Board Drought Year Water Actions website, accessed here, for further updates on when diversions may be authorized.  

BDCP Notice of Intent

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) noticed in the June 15, 2015 Federal Register the intent to prepare a partially recirculated draft EIR-EIS to the draft EIR on the Bay Delta Habitat Conservation Plan (BDCP) and Natural Community Conservation Plan (NCCP) for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  

The revised DEIR/SDEIS will describe conveyance alternatives that do not contain all the elements of a HCP/NCCP that were described in the previously circulated EIR/EIS.

Three additional conveyance alternatives are being proposed for analysis, each of which contains fewer Conservation Measures.  DWR has identified one of the new alternatives, Alternative 4A, as their proposed project.  Alternative 4A consists of a water conveyance facility with three intakes and habitat restoration measures necessary to minimize or avoid project effects.  The Federal Register Notice can be accessed here.

If one of the new alternatives is selected as the preferred alternative, it would be analyzed through the interagency consultation process under Section 7 of the federal Endangered Species Act and the CA Endangered Species Act through Section 2081 (b) of the Fish and Game Code.  The lead agencies are not proposing any scoping process for this RDEIR/SDEIS.

Notice of Proposed Emergency Actions – Russian River Tributaries

The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) has updated its website with a Notice of Proposed Emergency Actions due to Insufficient Flow for Specific Fisheries in Tributaries to the Russian River and the proposed rulemaking package. 

The Notice of Proposed Emergency Actions due to Insufficient Flow for Specific Fisheries in Tributaries to the Russian River can be accessed here.  The proposed rulemaking package can be accessed here.  Additional information and resources related to the proposed emergency regulation are provided on the Russian River Tributaries webpagewhich can be accessed here.   

If you have questions regarding this matter, please contact the Russian River Tributaries Hotline at: (916) 322-8422, or rr_tribs_emergency_reg@waterboards.ca.gov.

Fish and Game Commission Decline to List Tricolored Blackbird as Endangered

On June 11, 2015, the California Fish and Game Commission (Commission) voted against making the tricolored blackbird a candidate for listing as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act.  

The decision comes in response to a petition to list from the Center for Biological Diversity filed in October 2014.  With two Commissioners absent, the remaining members voted 2-1 against listing the blackbird based on the successes of ongoing, collaborative efforts between conservation organizations and agricultural interests.

The Commission previously listed the species on an emergency basis in December 2014.  At the time, critics of the decision felt the Commission had not adequately considered stakeholder input or given the Department of Fish and Wildlife sufficient time to evaluate the petition.  The emergency listing expires on June 30, 2015.  The petition, related documents, and video can be accessed here.

Congress Holds Hearings on Highway Trust Fund

With the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) set to become insolvent by July 31, 2015, the House and Senate Committees responsible for generating revenue for the program each held hearings this week on potential funding options.  

A number of members advocated for increasing the federal gas tax, but this approach was rejected by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), the Chairmen of the respective committees.  Chairman Ryan stated flatly that he would not consider raising the gas tax as an option to fund the HTF.  Several Republicans expressed a desire to remove transit funding from the HTF in order to devote more money to roads and bridges.  As in the past, this idea was rejected by Democrats in both the House and the Senate, and many of the Republicans suggesting it recognized that removing transit funding was politically unpopular.  Members also spoke of the need to streamline environmental reviews in order to expedite project delivery, and explained how doing so could reduce project costs and reduce the shortfall in the HTF.  The House Ways and Means Committee is likely to hold another hearing on this topic next week. 

Senate Appropriations Committee Passes the Interior-Environment Spending Bill

Late this week, for the first time in six years, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on passage of the FY2016 Interior-Environment spending measure, sending the bill to the full Senate.  

The bill is known to be controversial for its low-funding levels and its many policy riders aimed at stopping regulations proposed or finalized by the Obama Administration.  One of those policy riders included in the bill would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from using any funds to implement the Waters of the U.S. rule.  The bill does, however, include bipartisan language authorizing the use of disaster funds for wildfire suppression beginning in FY2017.  The provision would stipulate the annual appropriation of the 10-year suppression costs, as is current practice, but would allow the U.S. Forest Service to access disaster funds in the event that the entire appropriation was used before the end of the fiscal year.  Final bill language is not yet available, but early indication is that Federal Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) might not have been funded in the bill.  As a reminder, the House bill did include $425 million for Federal PILT.  At this time, the fate of the spending bill in the Senate is uncertain.  Democrats have promised to block every spending measure on the Senate floor, and unless Republicans can convince six Democrats to vote for the measure, the bill will likely never make it to the floor for formal consideration.  

BULLETIN BOARD

CDFW Accepting Applications for Fisheries Restoration Grants

Click here

KEEPING UP

David Bunn, of Davis, has been appointed Director of the California Department of Conservation.  Bunn has been Associate Director at the University of California, Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Office of International Programs since 2011, and a project director and researcher at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine since 2003.  He served as Deputy Director at the California Department of Fish and Game from 1999 to 2003, principal consultant and Legislative Director in the Office of California State Assemblymember Fred Keeley from 1997 to 1999, and was Co-Founder and Field Manager at American Trash Management from 1991 to 1996.

Eric Sklar, of St. Helena, has been appointed to the California Fish and Game Commission.  Sklar has been Founder and Managing Partner at Cs2 Wines LLC since 2012, and President at Preslar Ventures Inc. since 2001.  He was Founder and Managing Partner at Alpha Omega Winery from 2005 to 2013, and served as a member of the St. Helena City Council from 2003 to 2010, and the City of St. Helena Planning Commission from 2002 to 2003.  

Anthony Williams, of Huntington Beach, has been appointed to the California Fish and Game Commission.  Williams has been Director of Government Relations at the Boeing Company since 2014.  He served as Policy Director and Counsel in the Office of California State Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg from 2010 to 2014, was Founding Partner at Wada Williams Law Group LLP from 2006 to 2010, Director of Government Affairs at the State Bar of California from 2004 to 2006, and Principal Consultant for California State Senate President pro Tem John L. Burton from 2000 to 2004.  

REGULATORY UPDATE

RCRC members are encouraged to submit comments on regulatory matters to state and federal regulatory bodies, and to provide a copy to RCRC’s Government Affairs staff.  Click “Read More” to access information related to the current status of regulations impacting California’s rural counties.  

Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funding Guidelines for Administering Agencies.  Establishes fund distribution guidance for state agencies that receive appropriations from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.  Agency: California Air Resources Board Status: Draft published for a 14-day comment period, comments due on June 29, 2015.  Public workshops scheduled for Monday, June 22, 2015, Board consideration on July 23, 2015.  Draft guidelines and related documents can be accessed hereRCRC Comments: RCRC is seeking member county input.  RCRC Advocate: Staci Heaton sheaton@rcrcnet.org