SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — Numerous South Shore projects were put on indefinite hold last week following a suspension of critical payments by California officials due to the state budget crisis.
On Dec. 17, the three-member Pooled Money Investment Board voted 3 - 0 to suspend approximately $4 billion in state funds for an estimated 2,000 infrastructure projects throughout California.
“The PMIB took this action to preserve necessary cash resources to pay the day-to-day operational needs of the state for the balance of the fiscal year pending further PMIB action in January,” according to a letter to state agencies from Department of Finance Director Michael Genest. “If loan reimbursement continues at the current pace, the state’s portion of the Pooled Money Invested Account is projected to run out of liquid cash before the end of the current fiscal year.”
The 56-acre project, Sawmill Bike Path, Upper Truckee River Restoration Project, Bijou Area Erosion Control Project, Sierra Tract Erosion Control Project, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s best management practices program and numerous erosion-control projects along state highways are among the Lake Tahoe projects that depend on bond funding suspended by the board’s decision, according to Lake Tahoe Basin officials.
Future funds will only be approved once the state budget crisis is resolved, according to the letter.
The sudden suspension caused anxiety at basin agencies.
About 90 percent of the approximately $20 million the California Tahoe Conservancy has invested annually in the basin during recent years comes from bond funding that’s now suspended, said Conservancy Deputy Director Ray Lacey.
Lacey remains hopeful the funding will return, but said unknowns about the national and global economy persist, and it is “difficult if not impossible” to sell bonds at this time.
“It’s a little frustrating right now for us. We were given a halt order without any follow-up,” said Cindy Wise, a grant coordinator for the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, adding details from the state about how affected agencies should proceed is lacking.
“I’m sure we’ll get that direction, but we haven’t gotten that right now,” she said.
The suspension affected nine projects administered by the water board, including seven projects in the Lake Tahoe and Truckee River watersheds totaling $20 million, Wise said.
Groups like the Tahoe Resource Conservation District and the Sierra Nevada Alliance — a South Lake Tahoe-based network of conservation groups throughout the Sierra Nevada range — implement the projects, Wise said.
Alliance Executive Director Joan Clayburgh said she was forced to lay off several employees because of the suspension of payments.
“It basically just dissolved our watershed program,” Clayburgh said. ...
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FULL STIRY in the Tahoe Daily Tribune --
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
