Office of Planning and Research: Infrastructure Gap-Fund Program.

Existing law establishes the Office of Planning and Research in the Governor's office for the purpose of serving the Governor and the Governor's cabinet as staff for long-range planning and research and constituting the comprehensive state planning agency. Existing law authorizes a local agency to finance infrastructure projects through various means, including by establishing an enhanced infrastructure financing district to finance public capital facilities or other specified projects of communitywide significance that provide significant benefits to the district or the surrounding community. This bill would require the office, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to establish the Infrastructure Gap-Fund Program to provide grants to local agencies to develop and construct infrastructure projects, as defined. The bill would authorize the office to provide funding for up to 20% of a project's total cost, subject to specified requirements, including, among other things, that the office is prohibited from awarding a grant to a local agency unless the local agency provides funding that has been raised through local taxes for at least 10% of the infrastructure project's total cost. The bill would require the office to develop guidelines to implement the program that establish the criteria by which grant applications will be evaluated and funded. The bill would make these provisions operative January 1, 2027.