The 2026-27 Budget: Permitting Support at the State Water Resources Control Board

Mar 2, 2026 - Supreme Court decision — Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( Sackett ) —narrowed the definition of WOTUS. The ruling limits federal jurisdiction to relatively permanent bodies of water and to wetlands that have a continuous surface connection to WOTUS.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5144

The 2026-27 Budget: Framework for Approaching the Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and Agriculture Budget

Feb 10, 2026 - That decision ( Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ) narrowed federal Clean Water Act protections, thereby indirectly shifting regulatory responsibilities for certain bodies of water to the state under state law.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5116

The 2025-26 Budget: State Mandate—Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board

May 5, 2025 - It also asserts that a 2002 appellate court decision ( Howard Jarvis Association v. City of Salinas ) —which found that the city did not have sufficient fee authority to levy a stormwater fee due to the voter approval requirement —was wrongly decided.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5039

An Initial Review of the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program

Dec 13, 2021 - This is in part due to the nature of the RFFC block grant allocation process. DOC selected grantees based on prior experience in regional coordination and organizational capacity to administer the block grant.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4482

The 2022-23 Budget: Office of Planning and Research Budget Proposals

Feb 9, 2022 - To increase awareness about the program and to recruit volunteers, California Volunteers would develop a robust marketing campaign using social media platforms, such as Facebook and Ring Neighborhoods, and provide communications support to neighborhood leaders. $1.5   Million for Digital Infrastructure.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4523

The 2022-23 Budget: Municipal Stormwater and Urban Runoff Discharges Mandate

Feb 28, 2022 - Despite the general federal direction to the state water boards to reduce the discharge of pollutants, however, courts have found that specific permit conditions required by the boards but not explicitly stated in federal law can be state ‑reimbursable mandates ( Department of Finance v.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4565

The 2024-25 California Spending Plan: Resources and Environmental Protection

Sep 12, 2024 - The 2024‑25 budget package provides a total of $17.8 billion from various fund sources—the General Fund, a number of special funds, bond funds, and federal funds—for the departments overseen by the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) and California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA). This amount represents about half of total 2023‑24 estimated expenditure levels.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4928

The 2019-20 Budget: California Spending Plan—Resources and Environmental Protection

Oct 17, 2019 - This includes (1) $6  million for local block grants to implement fire prevention and community preparedness activities, (2) $2.5  million to reimburse counties for maintenance of emergency evacuation routes, (3) $1  million to create a new fire outreach and extension program, (4) $250,000 to reimburse counties for providing training to local planners on land use planning issues
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4103

Managing Floods in California

Mar 22, 2017 - Another example is the Napa River/Napa Creek Flood Protection Project, which utilized strategies including (1)  riverbank terracing (allowing rising floodwaters room to spread into defined areas), (2)  converting pastureland to wetlands that are available to hold excess waters, (3)  replacing a number of old bridges that had blocked flows, and (4)  incorporating a dry bypass
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3571

The 2022-23 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2022 - Even the Governor ’s proposed base increases for 2022 ‑23 are not linked to specific cost increases for personnel, equipment, and other operating expenses —the core building blocks of any university budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4492