Tax Rate to be Maintained

CA State Water Project

SGPWA logo

The San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency Board of Directors voted on August 5 to maintain the Agency’s property tax rate at eighteen and a half cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation for the third year in a row.  The tax rate means that the owner of a $200,000 home would pay $370 per year in property taxes to the Agency.

CA State Water ProjectThe tax funds the Agency’s share of debt service, operation, and maintenance of the State Water Project.  The Agency is currently partnering with the California Department of Water Resources and the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (Valley District) to construct phase 2 of the East Branch Extension, the pipeline that delivers water from the State Water Project in San Bernardino to the Agency’s service area in the San Gorgonio Pass.

“Thanks to our pro-active steps in urging the Department of Water Resources to sell bonds now, when interest rates are at historic lows, we can keep our annual debt service costs down and should not have to raise our rate for the next several years” said President John Jeter of Banning.  The Agency Board has raised its tax rate once since 2000.  “Our share of Phase 2 of the East Branch Extension will cost our region $80 million, but it is an investment in our future.  Without it, we would not be able to import all of our water in wet years.  Currently we can only import about 11,000 acre-feet of water a year, out of our total allotment of 17,300 acre-feet.”

The Agency also passed its debt service budget for the year, a balanced budget of approximately $17 million that will be sent to Sacramento to pay for the Agency’s share of the State Water Project.

The East Branch Extension Phase 2 is a $200 million pipeline, pump station, and reservoir in the Mentone area that will enable the Agency to import more water in wet years to help carry the region through dry years.  The Valley District is funding the rest of the cost to help it meet future demands in the Redlands/Yucaipa area.

The State Water Project was authorized by California Voters in 1960 through the Burns-Porter Act.  The Act required that no State general funds be used to pay for the construction, operation, or maintenance of the State Water Project.  Each of the 29 water agencies throughout the State that contract for this water must pay their share of the total cost each year through property taxes or water rates.

An acre-foot of water is approximately 326,000 gallons, or enough to meet the needs of two families for a year.

###

San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency is one of 29 State Water Project contractors whose mission is to import supplemental water, to protect and enhance local water supplies for use by present and future water users and to sell imported water to local water districts within its service area extending from Calimesa to Cabazon in western Riverside County, California.

For more information, please contact General Manager Jeff Davis at 951/845-2577.

Archives