SACRAMENTO >>Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday proposed spending $437 million to help fix California’s flood control emergencies and headaches, including repairing the crumbling spillways at Oroville Dam.
Brown said aging dams are part of a deep-seated problem in California and the rest of the country with too little spent to maintain infrastructure, the mix of roads, highways, rail systems and water projects.
“We have to belly up to the bar to start spending,” Brown said at a press conference. “We have an aging infrastructure that is maxed out.”
To boost flood control spending, the governor said he is asking the state Legislature to allocate $387 million from voter-approved Proposition 1 water bonds to emergency and near-term flood control actions. He also is asking lawmakers to devote $50 million of state general funds for the same purpose.
Also Friday, Brown announced that the Trump Administration has approved a request to issue a disaster declaration making California eligible for federal funds to repair Oroville Dam and respond to other problems caused by heavy storms.
Brown’s proposal would accelerate spending on flood control problems made acute this month by the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream of a crumbling emergency spillway at Oroville Dam, and the flooding of homes that affected thousands of people in San Jose, as well as other area’s of California.
“We have dam spillways eroding. We have roads crumbling,” he said “What’s required is to take some action immediately, which we were doing, and over the long term, invest billions of dollars in California infrastructure.”
Brown also proposed updates on flood inundation maps, dam inspections and strengthening of emergency action and evacuation plans for areas at risk of flooding.
Brown acknowledged that the $437 million in flood control is a small part of the state’s $187 billion in unmet infrastructure needs for flood management, deferred highway maintenance, and for local streets and roads.
Making big investments in dams, roads, and highways will be challenging because of public skepticism toward government and resistance of paying more taxes, the governor said. But he asserted those investments are necessary to protect infrastructure essential to California’s economy.
