Water agencies would be taxed under state bill
Money would go for projects, but agencies doubt results
Bradley J. Fikes
North County Times
04/27/2011
Retail water districts would pay a new tax under proposed state legislation to fund water-related supply, environmental and recreation projects. The size of the tax has yet to be calculated, but it would be significant.
A hearing is scheduled May 4 for the bill, Senate Bill 34, in the California Senate's Governance and Finance committee. Since the bill would impose a tax, it requires two-thirds approval by the Legislature.
SB 34 was introduced in the Natural Resources and Water committee by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. The influential legislator is perhaps best known as the author of California's hands-free cellphone law. The water tax bill was approved April 12 by the committee on a 5-3 vote.
Simitian is offering SB 34 as an alternative to an $11.4 billion water bond measure the Legislature recently placed on the ballot for November 2012. The bill doesn't specify the level of taxes but is expected to be revised later to do so.
Backers say the bill pays for necessary upgrades to California's water infrastructure, especially in the Sacramento River delta, which showed its inadequacy during the state's recently ended drought.
Opponents say SB 34 doesn't give specifics about where the money will be spent. They include water districts around the state and the Association of California Water Agencies, a statewide organization of water agencies.
"It would force water agencies to pay a steep new water tax with no direct benefit to those who pay," said Phil Rosentrater, spokesman for Western Municipal Water District in Riverside County. The district covers 850,000 people concentrated along the Interstate 15 corridor, including Lake Elsinore, Wildomar and parts of Murrieta and Temecula.
The San Diego County Water Authority, a wholesaler whose member retail agencies are subject to paying the tax, is scheduled to vote Thursday on a recommendation to oppose the bill.
Precarious delta
Officially titled the California Water Resources Investment Act of 2011, the bill would tax every retail water supplier in the state based on the amount of water provided for nonfarm uses. Agricultural uses would be taxed per acre.
The money would flow into the newly established California Water Resources Investment Fund. Half the money in the fund would go to various projects authorized by the Legislature, along with funding for the Delta Stewardship Council, a state agency charged with finding a plan to fix water transport and environmental problems in the Sacramento River delta.
The remaining half of the money would be placed in investment accounts to fund programs in 11 regions of the state, coinciding with those covered by the 11 Regional Water Control boards.
State Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, said she supports the bill because it will improve the reliability of arid San Diego County's water supply, which is dependent on the state's network of aqueducts and reservoirs.
"Without proper infrastructure in Northern California to deliver water to the south, our water prices are going to go up even more," said Kehoe, who is also on the Natural Resources and Water committee with Simitian.
"Even with desal, water conservation and other programs, we're still going to need to import water, and we need to have good infrastructure to do that," Kehoe said. "It's one big system and we're at the end of the spigot."
Kehoe said she recognized that SB 34 will be hard to sell, given the weak economy.
"Senator Simitian is going to have to answer some pretty tough questions, and he's always capable of doing that," she said.
The delta's condition is precarious. Water from Northern California goes through the delta before it is pumped to the Central Valley and Southern California. Pumping has been restricted by court decisions in recent years because salmon and a fish called the delta smelt are caught in the pumps and killed.
Moreover, the delta's fresh water is protected from the San Francisco Bay's salty water by a fragile network of levees and peat islands that are vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake. Compaction of the islands has left many of them below sea level. If salty water reaches the pumps, they would have to shut down.
Safeguards wanted
While the water agencies agree that the delta and other infrastructure need to be fixed, they say the Simitian bill doesn't provide safeguards to ensure money is used for its intended purpose.
