Bill Text: CA AB345 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced

California Assembly Bill 345

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Habitat restoration: flood control: advance payments.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)

Status: (Passed) 2023-10-10 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 647, Statutes of 2023. [AB345 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB345-Introduced.html

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 345

Introduced by Assembly Member Wilson

January 31, 2023

An act to add Section 133.5 to the Water Code, relating to water.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 345, as introduced, Wilson. Habitat restoration: flood control: advance payments.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Water Resources to make examinations of lands subject to inundation and overflow by floodwaters and of the waters causing the inundation or overflow and to make plans and estimates of the cost of works to regulate and control the floodwaters. Existing law also vests in the department charge of all expenditures unless otherwise provided by law for all public works relating to general river and harbor improvements, including reclamation and drainage of lands. Existing law authorizes the department to cooperate and contract with any agency of the state or of the United States in order to carry out its powers and purposes.

This bill would authorize the department to provide advance payments, as defined, to local agencies for projects that restore habitat for threatened and endangered species under state or federal law or improve flood protection, as provided. The bill would prohibit the amount of funds advanced by the department to the local agency at any one time from exceeding 25% of the entire amount authorized to be provided under the funding agreement between the department and the local agency.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 133.5 is added to the Water Code, to read:

133.5.

(a) The department has discretion to provide advance payments to local agencies for projects that have at least one of the following project purposes: restoring habitat for threatened and endangered species under state or federal law or improving flood protection. The amount of funds advanced by the department to the local agency at any one time shall not exceed 25 percent of the entire amount authorized to be provided under the funding agreement between the department and the local agency. In light of the state’s interest in these projects, the department may reduce or eliminate any retention that would otherwise be withheld under the funding agreement.

(b) For purposes of this section, “advance payments” are funds that are provided to a local agency before the local agency has incurred expenses in furtherance of a project described in subdivision (a) and that are provided by the department to allow the local agency to fund the project on a cashflow basis.