Newsom budget would cut money for California flood protection

SACRAMENTO >> Multiple flood protection projects in California are on hold after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting their funding to help cover a $22.5 billion budget deficit — a decision disappointing environmental advocates as weeks of powerful storms have caused widespread flooding that damaged homes and washed away roads.

Newsom’s budget proposal, released last week, cuts $40 million that had been pledged for floodplain restoration projects along rivers in the San Joaquin Valley, an area at high risk of catastrophic flooding.

Those projects would allow for rivers to flood in strategic places during winter storms or the

spring Sierra Nevada snowmelt, reducing the risks for populated areas downstream while also benefiting environmental ecosystems.

Newsom approved that money last year, when the state had a record budget surplus of around $100 billion. Just a few months later, things have changed dramatically as a sluggish stock market has slowed the state’s economy, reducing the amount of taxes the state collects. Now, Newsom says California will have a $22.5 billion deficit this year.

The governor’s plan to cover that relies in part on cutting $9.6 billion in spending, including the $40 million for the floodplain projects. It would restore the funds in 2024 if they are available.

“I see it as prioritizing winners and losers in California — and we’re the losers,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, an environmental advocacy group.

The Newsom administration would cut that money because “we are facing serious economic headwinds,” said Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency. He said those floodplain restoration projects are eligible to get funds from other places, including the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Program and the Wildlife Conservation Board.

The decision was made in early December, weeks before record rainfall hit the state, and Crowfoot acknowledged the recent storms could change the administration’s thinking. The budget won’t be finished for months and will be changed multiple times, he noted.

“I think clearly these storms and the flooding impacts they have created have elevated policy makers’ understanding of the importance of flood investments,” Crowfoot said.

For more than 100 years, Californians have tried to tame their rivers with a complex system of dams, canals and levees that have transformed the state’s Central Valley into fertile farmland.

But recently state officials have been rethinking that strategy by returning large swaths of land to floodplains.