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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />· Water resource investigations (e.g., MWSI, saved/salvaged water study, Ft. <br />Lyon canal study and decision support system); <br /> <br />· Fish and Wildlife mitigation project; <br /> <br />· River rehabilitation projects; and <br /> <br />· Water resource data collection (e.g., satellite monitoring system, irrigated <br />acreage verification, development of monitoring wells, and estimates of not- <br />nontributary and nontributary water replacement and relinquishment values. <br /> <br />However, in consulting with some of the water community lobbyists that are more <br />familiar with recent legislative developments, my sense is that we may be able to do a <br />better job protecting the fund by leaving the statutory purposes alone for now. Although <br />they haven't been revised for approximately five years, we have not had any difficulty <br />persuading the General Assembly in recent years that every one of the Board's funding <br />recommendations have been a wise investment within the intended uses. I believe this is <br />especially true, given the broad statement of purpose in Section 199(1)("",to enable the <br />construction, rehabilitation, enlargement, or improvement of such flood control, water <br />supply, and hydroelectric facilities, including domestic water treatment and distribution <br />systems, together with related recreational facilities, in whole or in part, as will, in the <br />opinion of the Board, abate floods or conserve, effect more efficient use of, develop, or <br />protect the water and hydroelectric energy resources and supplies of the state of <br />Colorado") and the extensive legislative review in both the agriculture/natural resources <br />and appropriation committees on both the House and Senate sides. <br /> <br />My lobbyist-friends advise that Governor-elect Owens is proposing a very <br />expensive set of transportation improvements and, at the same time, opposed to using <br />"TABOR-excess" revenues with permission of the voters to pay for these projects. They <br />also suggest that the State Auditor's estimation that the Construction Fund may be <br />carrying a cash balance of approximately $50 million more than is needed is likely to <br />draw undesirable attention to this asset that the water community and the Board have <br />built and protected for many years. <br /> <br />Recommendation: Based upon the efforts we made to persuade the State <br />Auditor's Office that the "statutory compliance problems" they identified were not <br />significant, there are plenty of legitimate uses and needs for these funds, I recommend <br />that we recommend to the General Assembly that the statutory purposes of the CWCB <br />Construction Fund should be not be revised and that we include a discussion of our <br />reasons when we brief the House and Senate Ag. Committees this January. <br /> <br />Attachments <br /> <br />xc: <br /> <br />Dick MacRavey <br />Fred Anderson <br />Julie McKenna <br />Sara Duncan <br />Steve Arveschoug <br />CWCB Construction Fund Loan Program Staff <br /> <br />PHE L/boardmemlnov98/12a.doc <br />