Senate appropriators debate water funding, propose $150 million line of credit and new review step for large projects

The Appropriations - Education and Environment Division spent its meeting reviewing water funding and policy changes as senators and staff sought ways to manage a growing carryover of unspent project dollars.

Committee Chair Sorvaugh opened the session with a review of current numbers and proposals. The chair and staff described a $514,000,000 carryover of water-related funds and explained the revenue forecast reduced available funding by about $93,000,000 compared with the House plan. The committee is working with a working assumption of a $150,000,000 line of credit to provide flexibility: $50,000,000 of that would be reserved as backup for the Southwest Water Treatment Plant and $100,000,000 would be available to leverage carryover into the next biennium.

Chris Katamus, director of administration for the Department of Water Resources, confirmed the Southwest water treatment plant project is roughly a $94,000,000 project and said only limited engineering expenses have been spent so far. Katamus said the project is…