Calif. Governor Wants More Spending on Flood Threats

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(TNS) – California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed an increase to state spending on flood threats after a record-breaking winter, while retaining previously proposed budget cuts to his climate and environment budget.

The governor’s budget update, delivered Friday, includes $290 million for flood protection. Of those dollars, $125 million was pulled from funding for emergency drought response. Another $165 million was earmarked for flood control, business relief and floodplain restoration in the San Joaquin Valley .

“Here’s the new commitment: Flood protection,” Newsom said in a press conference. “We have a posture of drought to flood, reinforcing this weather whiplash.”

Included is money to raise the Corcoran levee to protect the nearby city and a pair of state prisons from ongoing flooding in the Tulare Lake basin. The estimated cost for raising the 14.5-mile levee is $17.2 million.

The state’s proposed $48 billion budget for climate measures this year was pruned in January from $54 billion over five years for its many water, energy, electric vehicles, transportation and wildfire programs.

The $6 billion cut drew outcry from environmental advocates, who warn that the state could lose focus and momentum as it tries to achieve ambitious goals to decarbonize the economy and reduce air pollution.

Friday’s release is part of a $306.5 billion budget that the state must manage under the weight of a growing shortfall.

Newsom said in January that state faced an estimated $22.5 billion gap after years of surpluses. That deficit increased to $31.5 billion in May. The Legislature must pass a budget by June 15 .

After three of the driest years on record, Californians were reminded of their state’s propensity for flooding during periods of high rainfall and rapid snowmelt. It’s that reality, coupled with years of advocacy, that brought the issue to the forefront.

“We’re really glad that the administration has taken it to heart, especially to protect people in the San Joaquin Valley ,” Julie Rentner , president of River Partners , an organization that collaborates with flood management engineers to restore river ecosystems.

Part of the flooding package is $40 million for floodplain restoration, which scientists and advocates have long argued will help reduce flood risk by allowing overflowing rivers to spread out, slow down and sink into the ground.

“We expect there will be a significant impact related to this investment in the Valley right away. You’re talking about expanding floodplains by hundreds to thousands of acres and getting as much as possible of this ‘Big Melt’ back into the ground to replenish aquifers,” Rentner said.

Other advocates displeased with the cuts noted that California is already feeling the deadly impacts of climate change through years of drought followed by atmospheric rivers this winter.

“We’re very behind,” said Melissa Romero , the senior legislative manager of California Environmental Voters. “We really can’t afford to have climate be something that only gets funded during budget surplus years.”

Romero and Brandon Dawson , director of Sierra Club California, both questioned in interviews before Friday’s budget announcement why the governor would retain certain cuts in environmental measures instead of placing more of the burden on oil and gas industries to deal with the deficit.

“Why were those the programs he chose to cut, as opposed to other programs related to potential bad actions that can be taken?” Dawson said. “In terms of permitting on oil and gas wells and other things like that.”

Romero and Dawson stressed that the budget proposal was a “moral document” reflecting the state’s commitments.

“Last year, we saw our state leaders, the governor, the speaker, the pro-tem and the Legislature, really prioritize climate at the scale that we’ve needed to for many, many years now,” Romero said.

“And to see that get pulled back after all of the celebration and all of the wins that we had — and to think about how our state hasn’t yet really committed to making sustained, massive investments in the crisis of the century — it’s hard to watch.”

Despite budget constraints, Newsom said that an important effort for energy and other projects is updating the permitting process. He said that next week he would preview a legislative package that could cut project timelines by up to three years.

“The world we invented, it’s now competing against us,” Newsom said. “We’re never going to advance our transition to clean energy and time to address our climate goals unless we are able to build these damn projects.”