Full $250 million for downtown Fresno is back on the table in CA budget legislation
The on-again, off-again prospects for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s commitment of $250 million for downtown Fresno infrastructure is on again following a weekend agreement in Sacramento between the governor and the state Legislature.
“Budget legislation now in print in both houses of the Legislature funds the Fresno Infrastructure Plan project, as proposed by the Governor in May: $250 million over three years,” a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon reported Saturday afternoon. Both Assembly and Senate versions of a budget bill include the money, “one of which is expected to be voted upon in both houses on Tuesday as part of the ‘June 27 Budget package.’”
Newsom’s proposed May budget revision called for the $250 million for downtown Fresno to come from the state’s $300 million Local Government Budget Sustainability Fund, to be spread out over three years.
But while both the Assembly and Senate budget bills approved on June 15 included the first year’s $50 million in the 2023-24 budget for the Fresno infrastructure program, the Senate version called for pulling back the other $200 million as budget savings in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 budget years. It’s described as one of several “key changes” in the Senate to Newsom’s budget proposals.
The Assembly version was unclear about plans for the remaining $200 million that Newsom had pledged to Fresno.
New language in the Assembly and Senate bllls “reflect the agreement of both houses’ leaderships as negotiations with the Governor continue on other items,” Rendon’s office reported:
“Of the amount appropriated in this item, $50,000,000 shall be available to the City of Fresno to support the city’s Public Infrastructure Plan,” the bills read. “Consistent with the Governor’s 2023-24 May Revision proposal, it is the intent of the Legislature to appropriate for this purpose an additional $100,000,000 in 2024-25 and an additional $100,000,000 (in) 2025-26.”
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer was happy to learn of the agreement between legislative leaders and the governor over the weekend. He credited state Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, and Assemblymembers Joaquin Arambula and Esmeralda Soria, both Democrats from Fresno, and the Fresno City Council for their “steadfast support” for the budget allocation.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors last week, at the urging of Supervisor Steve Brandau – himself a former Fresno City councilmember – approved sending a letter to Newsom and legislative leaders in support of the full $250 million allocation.
“This funding will support infrastructure upgrades essential to accelerate new housing and supporting businesses that are at the forefront of our downtown core’s rebirth,” Dyer said Saturday.
About $70 million from the allocation would be used to build two new parking structures with a total of about 2,000 parking stalls, essentially doubling the existing number of city-owned parking spaces in the area, Dyer proposed in May. At that time, the mayor projected that those additional parking spaces would be enough to serve between 2,000 and 3,000 residential apartments in the downtown area.
The city’s plans for other slices of the $250 million financial pie include:
- $80 million for overall infrastructure investments to promote housing development for 10,000 residents and other neighborhood revitalization efforts.
- $25 million for a storm water drainage basin downtown.
- $20 million for an intermodal transit center for alternatives to driving, including buses, bicycles and walking.
- $20 million for improvements to streets, sidewalks, curbs and gutters in downtown Fresno and the neighboring Chinatown area.
- $15 million for pocket parks, linear parks and other green spaces.
- $10 million for sewer system upgrades along Fresno and Merced streets in downtown.
- $10 million for a 16-inch water supply loop along H and F streets between Stanislaus and Mono streets.
When Newsom unveiled his May budget revision, he had high praise for Fresno’s infrastructure plans.
“We have a particular focus in the May revise on the incredible work that’s been done in Fresno and the incredible planning that has been done that allows us to make a commitment to Fresno,” Newsom said in his May 12 announcement, “in particular to accelerate that (infrastructure) effort because they’re teed up and ready to do something transformational.”
The age of some of the underground infrastructure in downtown Fresno and Chinatown means that it will likely take more money than what the state’s allocation will cover. The city’s public utilities director, Brock Buche, said in May that some sewer lines in downtown Fresno are almost 130 years old, while some water mains date back almost 100 years.
Buche estimated that the cost for new water and sewer lines in the area are “somewhere in the neighborhood of $160 million to $180 million,” far more than the $20 million in Dyer’s spending plan for the infusion of state money.
This story was originally published June 26, 2023 at 11:22 AM.
