On March 15, the Senate Governance and Finance Committee held an informational hearing entitled Bridging the Gap - Local Government Infrastructure. The hearing included a number of local government witnesses, including CSDA member Rancho California Water District (Rancho Water), speaking to infrastructure needs and related topics. CSDA and the California Municipal Utilities Association worked to facilitate the selection of Rancho Water and prepare Rancho Water’s General Manager Robb Grantham for the panel discussion.
Mr. Grantham spoke about the infrastructure funding and efficiency challenges faced by special districts, highlighting for the committee that although the State Water Resources Control Board has identified $100 billion in local infrastructure needs, a huge funding gap remains. Challenges to simply raising rates to pay for infrastructure, the need for developers to pay their fair share of costs through developers impact fees, and regulatory/project streamlining, were also discussed.
The hearing included panelists representing state government, cities, counties, builders/designers, and organized labor.
The need for more efficiencies in public works projects was highlighted as an area where the Legislature can assist local governments in meeting their infrastructure needs. Several pending bills introduced in the current legislative session were identified as being potentially beneficial, including Senate Bill 23 (Caballero) (permit streamlining), and Senate Bill 706 (Caballero) (extending the Progressive Design-Build alternative project delivery method to a broad range of local governments, including special districts). CSDA is supporting both bills, as well as Assembly Bill 400 (Rubio, Blanca) (eliminating the January 1, 2025 sunset on existing design-build authority), among others.
At the conclusion of the informational hearing, CSDA Senior Legislative Representative Aaron Avery provided public comment, thanking the committee for highlighting special districts, and offering CSDA’s continued partnership in addressing local governments’ needs for infrastructure funding and efficiencies.
Video of the informational hearing may be viewed here.
A link to the hearing agenda may be found here.
A background paper may be found here.
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