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<br />Plan and Budgeting, and Andrienne Gowel (?) is here, I wanted to just thank you guys,
<br />specifically the budget office, for those impacts. , ,they can't be understated, especially as you
<br />know, the Govemor was out around the state, touring different areas impacted by drought, and he
<br />was in Southem Colorado yesterday, at a ranch, and looked at the dust bowl, literally lying right
<br />behind him, and I don't think when you consider 85% of our water users are agricultural in nature,
<br />the budget impact on fanners is enormous, The impacts of the Govemor's request to the Secretary
<br />of Agriculture to approve a state-wide drought disaster declaration, which would open up low-
<br />interest loans and probably eventually some property, we're expecting to hear back from them
<br />imminently, if it hasn't been approved today we hope by the end of the week we should get
<br />approval on that. It's really a no-brainer for the Washington office, and the Secretary of
<br />Agriculture, I'd also like to thank those of you folks here who were working on the fires, we have
<br />Rich Homann, who's actually out on the phone right now, in the lobby, talking with the folks
<br />working in the Schoonover fire, Budget-wise, we are spending some significant resources on our
<br />fires, and we feel adequately prepared to deal with that threat throughout the summer, although as
<br />you can imagine, all the assistance that we get, from FEMA and counties and from all over, folks
<br />that contribute to these fires is much appreciated, So I wanted to point that out,
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<br />One of the recommendations. , ,there are several legislative effects that the drought. , .legislative
<br />tacks that we have obtained to deal with the drought. One of those is HB 1152, Colorado Water
<br />Conservation Board's water project bill, that offers low-interest loans to municipalities, irrigation
<br />districts, etc" for their water projects, it's something that Brad Lundahl has worked on personally,
<br />as well as folks in our State Engineer's office, The Governor will be signing that bill here, we just
<br />got done on Tuesday, and the Governor will sign that bill either today or in the next couple of
<br />days, In addition ofthat, a very important bill, HB 1414, which allows the State Engineer to
<br />approve substitute water supply plans for communities and other water users that are impacted,
<br />perhaps holding a junior right that they have simply restore to meet a senior right downstream,
<br />we're helping those communities find water through HB 1414, and I expect that bill to be signed
<br />either today or tomorrow, And then fmally, there was another bill, I forget the number, perhaps
<br />someone could remind me of that here, but it was a bill directly related to the recommendations of
<br />this Task Force and the Impact Task Force, which was to triple., ,1437 sounds correct., ,that bill
<br />was introduced in the House to essentially triple the penalties in time of drought for., ,someone
<br />causing a fire negligently, that bill died in the Senate on the last day of the session, so it did not get
<br />signed, So a lot offolks are calling on the Governor to be tough on negligent people who start
<br />fires, and they still intend to do that, although it certainly would have been helpful, again, it was
<br />an excellent recommendation ofthis task force, so I'd like to thank you all very much for that,
<br />encourage us all to consider the next step of the drought plan, and again, I really appreciate
<br />especially the ones of you who are working to fmd water, put it in reservoirs, and fmd resources to
<br />put in our fires, It's going to get a lot tougher as the summer goes one, and more states are
<br />being. , ,might be impacted with the low moisture levels and high fuel levels in their forests, and
<br />we'll all be working as a team to do that, In fact, today, now that the Western Governors with
<br />Governors Owns' approval, as well as the other governors, will be signing with the Secretary of
<br />Interior, a 10-year fire plan, a fire cooperative agreement, and perhaps when Rich comes in, he'll
<br />describe a little bit more about what that does, but it's something that our State Forest Service has
<br />contributed to significantly, And so if! could thank him for that, also, Other than that, a lot of
<br />questions about fire bans and I would say what I've heard the Governor say many times, it's just
<br />that a lot of park counties are responding in excellent fashion to the threat fire and in doing so
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