Claire Collins Speaks at California Lawyers Association Annual Environmental Law Conference

Fiscal politics and related legal developments have profound impacts on environmental law, but like the fish that has trouble describing the water, the fiscal environment of environmental law is often ignored. A series of voter initiatives amended California’s constitution to restrict local governments’ ability to raise revenues (such as through taxes or fees) and to require the State to reimburse local agencies for their efforts to implement new “unfunded mandates,” creating obstacles to adequately funding environmentally crucial infrastructure. An adversarial dynamic between the State and local governments and a complicated body of law has continued to unfold in the courts over decades, with environmental and environmental justice effects. This panel will examine the cumulative effects of Propositions 13 (1978), 4 (1979), 218 (1996), and 26 (2010) on financing for local water management in California, illustrating the implications for four scenarios: (1) setting water service rates to encourage conservation; (2) the human right to water, water district consolidation issues, and affordability; (3) funding municipal stormwater management and other water quality efforts; and (4) financing local groundwater management projects and programs under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

Claire Collins: "Water Meets the Tax Revolt: Constitutional Issues in Public Financing of Water-Related Services and Projects"