Striving for Equity in Public Investments in Water in California: An Analysis of Prop 1 Implementation

 In 2014, California voters approved a $7.5 billion bond measure to fund water quality, supply, and infrastructure improvements. Prop 1 included significant provisions to prioritize investments in disadvantaged communities. 

For this report, looking at Prop 1 spending midstream, we analyzed the $2.5 billion that had been assigned to projects as of April 2019 out of $7 billion of the bond funding that has been committed so far through budget appropriations. We analyzed how much of that funding is going to projects benefiting disadvantaged communities and technical assistance efforts to increase the capacity of those communities to secure funds and manage projects. The executive summary of this report with our topline findings and recommendations below also serves as an index to the rest of the detailed report that follows.