Governor Releases May Budget Revision; Suspension of Prop 1A Not Included
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released the highly anticipated May revision of the proposed 2008-’09 state budget today at a Capitol news conference. The governor pegged the state budget deficit at about $17.2 billion and said he would push for a November ballot measure asking voters to approve budget reforms as well as a plan to borrow $15 billion against future state lottery earnings over the next three years.

If voters do not approve the ballot measure, Schwarzenegger said a 1% increase in the sales tax would kick in for three years to backfill a rainy day fund for the state.

The revised budget does not call for suspension of Proposition 1A, the 2004 voter-passed measure that protects cities, counties and special districts from further “shifts” of local property tax revenues to address the state’s budget woes. Property tax shifts in the 2004-’05 and 2006-’07 budget years took more than $800 million from special districts, mainly water and wastewater agencies.

The May revise does not include a parole realignment proposal floated by the Legislative Analyst’s Office that would have targeted $188 million in property tax revenues from water and wastewater agencies. As proposed by the LAO, the revenues would have been shifted to counties to help fund supervision of some parolees. The LAO recently modified its original proposal to suggest that the Legislature give counties the authority to reallocate all property tax revenues received by enterprise special district water and wastewater agencies.

ACWA continues to be on the alert for potential attempts to shift local property tax revenues and will move swiftly to oppose any such efforts.

More on the May revision is available here.

East Bay MUD Institutes Mandatory Rationing
The East Bay Municipal Utility District declared a water-shortage emergency yesterday and instituted mandatory water rationing to protect the district’s dwindling water supplies.

The district adopted a drought management program that calls for residential customers to immediately cut water use by 19%. Outdoor watering on consecutive days or more than three days a week is prohibited and other uses are restricted under the program. The district’s board of directors will vote in July on a drought water rate structure that would charge customers more if their water use exceeds a certain threshold.

The action follows two consecutive dry years that have left the district’s reservoirs significantly lower than normal. The district’s main watershed received just half its normal runoff this year, and projections show reservoir levels will drop to critically low levels if next year is dry as well.

More on East Bay MUD’s action is available here.

Latest Runoff Figures Call for “Critically Dry” Year
The latest runoff projections from the Department of Water Resources put 2008 in the “critically dry” category following the driest March-April combination on record.

The designation reflects an extremely dry spring in which more than 8 million acre-feet of snow water content in the Sierra soaked into the ground or evaporated without running off into streams and key water storage reservoirs. State Meteorologist Elissa Lynn told ACWA members last week that the meager runoff could be a preview of what’s to come as climate change alters the state’s hydrology.

Storage in the state’s main reservoirs as of May 1 was at the lowest level since 1994, according to DWR. Lake Oroville, the principal storage reservoir for the State Water Project, is at 58% of average and may drop to its lowest level in history by fall. Statewide runoff is projected to be just 60% of average.

The dry conditions and court-ordered restrictions on Delta water exports already are squeezing supplies this year, with SWP customers expected to receive just 35% of their requested deliveries.

More on statewide conditions is available here.

ACWA is tracking current conditions and water supply impacts for water agencies around the state. ACWA members are urged to send information on what their agencies are doing to cope with dry conditions. Information can be sent to ACWA’s Communications and Outreach Department.

Expert Panel to Review CVPIA Fish Doubling Effort
An independent panel of experts will assess efforts by two federal agencies to double the natural production of anadromous fish under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA). The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called for the independent review to get outside recommendations on how to prioritize actions to achieve restoration goals.

Initial meetings and presentations are set for May 28-30 and June 4-5 in Sacramento. Details are available here.

BDCP Scoping Meetings Wrap Up
A series of statewide scoping meetings wrapped up in Bakersfield today as part of the environmental review process for the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, a collaborative effort to map out a comprehensive conservation plan for the Delta.

ACWA members participated in meetings up and down the state beginning April 28 in Sacramento. ACWA views the BDCP process as a critical step toward fixing the troubled Delta and the larger goal of securing a more sustainable water system for California, and thanks its member agencies for taking the time to attend the scoping meetings.

More on the BDCP is available here.

CALFED Releases Annual Report for 2007
A 2007 annual report chronicling efforts by CALFED Bay-Delta Program agencies is now available for download. The report captures activities during the last year of the program’s Stage 1 implementation under the 2000 CALFED Record of Decision.

The report is available here.