[env-trinity] State agencies owe counties over $17 million as Brown fast-tracks tunnels

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.fishsniffer.com/blogs/details/state-agencies-owe-counties- 
over-17-million-as-brown-fast-tracks-tunnels/

State agencies owe counties over $17 million as Brown fast-tracks  
tunnels

by Dan Bacher

Opponents of Governor Jerry Brown's Bay Delta Conservation Plan  
(BDCP) to build the peripheral tunnels asked how taxpayers would  
trust "deadbeat state agencies" to pay billions for seized farmland  
and habitat when news reports reveal that the agencies owe counties  
over $17 million.

Restore the Delta (RTD) today responded to news reports in the  
Sacramento Bee and on Capital Public Radio that the State of  
California has failed to pay for land it acquired from thirty-six  
counties.

This report of defaulted payments comes as the State pursues its plan  
to purchase, or seize through eminent domain, tens of thousands of  
acres of farmland to build a pair of water export tunnels to deliver  
massive quantities of Sacramento River water to corporate  
agribusiness, developers and oil companies.

“Why would we trust these same agencies to keep their promises about  
the $54.1 billion tunnels, the land they will purchase or the  
‘habitat’ they will buy and manage?" asked RTD Executive Director  
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla. “The failure to repay for lands is just  
one in a long series of broken promises by these same agencies. They  
are not trustworthy.”

The $54.1 billion cost of the tunnels includes $14.5 billion for  
construction, $1.5 billion for O&M (operation and maintenance), $26.3  
billion for interest on tunnel revenue bonds, $7 billion for habitat  
and conservation, $3.2 billion for interest on General Obligation  
Bonds and $1.6 billion for administration and research.

The state currently owes the counties more than $17 million,  
according to California Public Radio (http://www.capradio.org/ 
articles/2013/11/12/fish-and-wildlife-owes-counties-millions-of-dollars/

Bob Moffitt at California Public Radio explained, "The Department of  
Fish and Wildlife long ago bought properties for wildlife projects in  
three dozen counties. The department agreed to make yearly payments  
equal to the amount of property taxes that counties would lose as a  
result of the sale."

H.D. Palmer of the California Department of Finance told Moffitt that  
the state hasn't made a payment since the end of the 2001 fiscal year.

"The rural counties have sent letters to the governor seeking that  
those payments be re-instated and we are still working on the  
decisions on the budget that the Governor will submit in January,"  
Palmer said. "So, we can't say one way or the other what will be in  
that budget regarding the in-lieu payments."

"This week, Yolo County sent the Department of Fish and Wildlife a  
past-due invoice for about $1.4 million. The county says property  
like the one known as 'No Man's Land' near the Yolo Causeway are not  
generating tax revenue because they are owned by the state and are a  
burden on neighboring landowners who pay more than their fair share  
for fire protection services," Moffitt reported.

The state owes Riverside $2.7 million - the most of any county-  
followed by Napa, Yolo, Butte, Merced, Lassen and San Diego,  
according to Moffitt.

To read the Sacramento Bee article, go to: http://www.sacbee.com/ 
2013/11/12/v-print/5906242/yolo-county-asks-state-for-14.html

Protesters have greeted Governor Jerry Brown at his recent  
appearances throughout the state to oppose his support of fracking,  
the peripheral tunnels, massive fish kills on the Delta and REDD.  
(http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/10/18/18745051.php

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