Water district parcel tax initiative on its way

The Santa Clara County Water District board will consider implementing a parcel tax to raise money for such things as flood protection, stream stewardship and help pay for a portion of the Anderson Dam retrofit project.
“This is has been a marathon where you try to run as fast as you can in a short period of time yet to get to the finish line,” said Rick Callender government relations manager for the water district at the board meeting.
Callender presented to the SCVWD board of directors at the March 27 meeting so that they can “make an informed decision” on the process of whether or not to add the parcel tax to the November ballot. Since the board received the plan, they have directed staff to inform stakeholders and determine the acceptability of the plan as written. The outreach will help make a decision whether or not to place the measure on the ballot, which the board will determine at the July 24 meeting, said SCVWD spokesperson Marty Grimes.
This draft plan comes after the district surveyed 800 voters, 46 of whom are from South County, if they would approve of a parcel tax. The majority of voters said they would approve of a continuation of the already-in-place parcel tax set to sunset in 2016.
The Safe, Clean Water and Natural Flood Protection draft plan increased funding for such projects as the Creek Restoration and Stabilization Project to $12.8 million and adjusted the Safe, Clean, Water partnerships and grants funding to $2.2 million.
At the March meeting, Morgan Hill city councilmember Gordon Siebert showed up to show his support of the plan.
“First I wanted to say the city of Morgan Hill supports the new initiative,” said Siebert.
He mentioned that the retrofitting Anderson Dam has benefits throughout the county, not just for Morgan Hill.
If approved, the board will approve the plan in July for placement on the November ballot. The rate of the new parcel tax would be at $54 per parcel; the current average is $52.64 under the 15-year “Clean, Safe Creeks and Natural Flood Protection” plan.
The total funding sources for the SCWNFP plan would be $917.4 million.
Of the total, $70.5 million would go toward the protect of the water supply from earthquakes, such as helping to retrofit the Anderson Dam project. The total of the Anderson Dam retrofit project jumped to a potential $185 million in February; it was deemed unsafe last year with a possibility that if a large earthquakes strikes a 1.25 miles of the dam, a 35-foot wall of water would rush to Morgan Hill, putting it under water in roughly 15 minutes, flood Gilroy, San Martin and the entire valley floor up to San Jose within a couple of hours.