California was experiencing a series of major rain and snow storms in January when Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a 2023-24 state budget.
Tucked into one of the budget’s hundreds of pages of detail was this paragraph:
“San Joaquin Valley Flood Plain Restoration — A reduction of $40 million General Fund in 2023-24, which eliminates funding for this purpose.”
The $40 million had been a small down payment on the billions of dollars that would be needed to protect communities in the valley from disastrous floods that scientists had been warning could occur under certain meteorological circumstances.
To continue reading, see the column by Dan Walters at CalMatters…
