Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, told the Senate Subcommittee on Natural Resources that the agency will use the $10,000,000,000 authorized by voters under Proposition 4 to pay for wildfire resilience, water infrastructure, coastal protection and nature-based solutions across the state.

Crowfoot said the agency will seek “total transparency around the programs that are being created and the funding going out the door,” and stressed tracking outcomes. “We are excited that a large portion of this will impact underserved communities. You all know that 40% of these funds need to benefit disadvantaged communities and 10% severely disadvantaged communities,” he said.

Why it matters: Proposition 4 is the largest single new climate bond in this hearing and the agency’s implementation decisions will determine which projects are funded and how quickly money gets into communities. Crowfoot emphasized both speed and accountability — promising to simplify application processes so more local groups can access bond proceeds while building outcome tracking so the state can measure results.

Key points Crowfoot gave to the subcommittee:
- Funding plans and priorities: Crowfoot said the administration proposes allocating about $2,700,000,000 of the $10 billion in the next year and that most of the bond will be additive rather than used to backfill ongoing state costs. He acknowledged an expected $237,000,000 of “backfill” in the proposal, a figure he described as less than 10% of the bond’s first-year allocations.
- Wildfire resilience: The agency proposes to continue using cap-and-trade proceeds and climate bond proceeds for wildfire resilience. Crowfoot stated the administration recommends keeping $200,000,000 of cap-and-trade funding for wildfire work and allocating $325,000,000 of climate bond proceeds to build wildfire resilience projects such as fuel breaks and prescribed burns.
- Water and dam safety: Crowfoot said the agency is proposing about $231,000,000 for dam safety and local climate-resilience assistance programs and cited recent investments exceeding $8,000,000,000 in water resilience in recent years.
- Coastal resilience and ports: Crowfoot noted proposals of roughly $172,000,000 in climate bond funding for coastal resilience, including funds to plan ($77,000,000) and build ($82,000,000) projects, and referenced $230,000,000 proposed to support port upgrades and offshore wind readiness.
- Nature-based investments and parks: The secretary highlighted proposed allocations to wildlife and conservancy work, tribal co-stewardship, and parks — including a combined proposal of about $286,000,000 of climate bond funds for parks and local open-space projects and nearly $85,000,000 aimed at deferred maintenance.

Agency approach and next steps: Crowfoot repeatedly framed the bond effort as both an implementation and accountability challenge. He said the agency has begun a process to track outcomes and to make funding “simple and easy to access” while also protecting environmental objectives.

Context and constraints: Crowfoot noted the budget environment is constrained and the agency must limit bond funding used as “backfill” for general fund shortfalls. He told senators the governor and administration are working to limit backfill and that further details will be shared in follow-up briefings.

Outlook: Crowfoot asked the subcommittee for partnership on implementation decisions and indicated the agency will publish more information about program rules and performance tracking as it develops the roll-out of Proposition 4 programs.