On January 9, 2026, Governor Newsom announced his 2026-2027 $348.9 billion budget proposal. Contrary to his 2025 proposal, this proposal includes a deficit. However, this proposal’s deficit is only $2.3 billion, substantially less than in 2023 and 2024, and the press release calls this projected deficit both “modest” and “solved”. The budget proposal’s deficit projection stands in contrast with the Legislative Analyst’s Office November 19, 2025 report, which predicted an $18 billion shortfall.
The budget site includes a full combined summary, summaries of ...
On January 21, 2026, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) published its Best Management Practices of the Sustainable Management of Groundwater – Land Subsidence (Subsidence BMPs). The press release details the importance of addressing subsidence, which costs Californians hundreds of millions of dollars annually, largely through damaging public infrastructure and reducing water deliveries.
Background
Subsidence is the process of land sinking. In the water context, it is generally caused by removing groundwater quicker than it is replenished, which ...
Earlier this year, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order (EO) N-16-25. That order is designed to facilitate the diversion and storage of flood flows and aligns with the Governor’s broader water supply strategy, which is focused on attacking the misalignment between water supply and demand while also factoring in the impacts of climate change. But the questions remain: will it be effective and will there be any unintended consequences?
The Executive Order
One key aspect of EO N-16-25 is that it waives a part of Water Code section 1242.1 that required a regional or local agency to ...
On January 10, 2025, Governor Newsom announced his 2025-2026 budget proposal of $322.3 billion. Unlike in 2023 and 2024, the proposal is for a balanced budget with a surplus of $363 million, although it does include $7 billion in funds from the state’s rainy day fund. The budget site includes a full combined summary, summaries of individual sections and a full detailed budget.
The budget includes reductions in funding for nearly all government agencies. The Natural Resources Agency has the biggest cut in net dollars and the second biggest cut percentage wise, with a 55.4% and ...
After months of unusually heavy rainfall from California’s atmospheric rivers in the beginning of 2024, many projects found themselves facing delays, additional costs and setbacks due to the wet weather. In determining who is responsible for those delays, costs or setbacks, the first thing to look for in a contract are provisions on Force Majeure. Some parties may be surprised by what their contract says on Force Majeure and what risk they assumed for bad weather. …
On January 10, 2024, Governor Newsom announced his 2024-2025 State budget proposal for $291 billion with a $37.9 billion proposed deficit. For water projects, the proposal is remarkably similar to his proposal from last year. The main differences as compared to last year’s proposal are bigger cuts (to many of the same areas cut last year) and less funding for new projects.
Governor Newsom seeks to address the $37.9 billion budget shortfall (which is substantially lower than the Legislative Analyst Office’s $68 billion projection from last month) through a variety of ...
A key priority of the Newsom administration – the Delta Conveyance Project – has officially entered its next chapter. On July 22, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) released its draft environmental impact report (Draft EIR) for the Delta Conveyance Project.
The Delta Conveyance Project is DWR’s and Governor Newsom’s plan to build an underground tunnel to bring water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the State Water Project pumps near Tracy in order to reduce the risk from earthquakes and climate change to the State’s water supplies. It is intended to protect ...
Sea level rise is a critical issue facing public agencies and property owners throughout the United States. In California alone, this phenomenon could impact thousands of residences and businesses, dozens of wastewater treatment plants and power plants and hundreds of miles of highways, roads and railways. Last year, the California Legislature introduced a number of bills that proposed to address, or anticipate, or mitigate the impacts of sea level rise in California. Almost all of those bills, however, failed to make their way to the Governor’s desk. This year, the California ...
California Water Views provides timely and insightful updates on the water sector in the state. We relay information on how water legislation and policy from the nation’s capital, Sacramento, and around the U.S. affect California’s water utilities, agencies, practitioners, and consumers. We also write about important events, conferences, legal cases, and other key happenings involving all things water in and around California.
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