- The San Joaquin Regional Transit District in Northern California used federal relief funds to keep buses running while it redesigns services to match new ridership trends.
- The Bremerton Housing Authority in Washington State generates important revenue by performing contract work for other housing authorities.
- The Moulton Niguel Water District in Southern California used innovative partnerships to launch new technologies that lower the district’s energy costs and help it detect water leaks.
Download your copy today for practical advice and insights to help your district move forward on modernization.
A Critical Moment for Infrastructure
Even bigger funding and innovation opportunities are on the horizon. The bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law late last year provides $973 billion over five years to state and local government jurisdictions for a range of infrastructure improvements. The new law, officially called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), includes $550 billion in new investments for transportation, water, power and energy, environmental remediation, public lands, broadband and resilience.
Details for distributing much of this funding are still being worked out – and in many cases special districts will need to work with cities or counties to access IIJA dollars – but the law represent a huge opportunity for upgrading technology and strengthening resilience.
IIJA funding streams of particular interest to special districts include:
- $65 billion to improve broadband infrastructure and close the digital divide
- $1 billion to strengthen cybersecurity for state and local government information systems
- $250 million to strengthen cybersecurity for rural electric cooperatives and public utilities
- $73 billion for electric grid updates
- $55 billion for projects to improve water quality
- $42 billion for improvements at airports and ports
- $39 billion to upgrade public transit systems
Center for Digital Government funding expert Joe Morris breaks down the legislation in this on-demand webinar. Excellent IIJA resources are also available from the National League of Cities and National Association of Counties.
IT Budgets on the Rise?
Our annual Special Districts Survey, conducted in late 2021, shows special district leaders are fairly optimistic about technology budgets for the new year – even if most of them haven’t yet accessed federal funds for IT initiatives.
Almost 40 percent of respondents said their IT budget increased for fiscal 2021-22, according to the survey of more than 200 special district officials conducted in December. Among respondents who reported budget increases, nearly 30 percent said they saw a hike of more than 20 percent.
So far, however, IT budget growth isn’t being fueled by federal stimulus programs. Less than 15 percent of respondents said they had tapped stimulus dollars for IT initiatives over the past 18 months. This percentage may change as massive new IIJA funds become available later this year.
Newly released research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that about 80 percent of irrigation organizations serving farming communities in parched western and southwestern states lack a formal plan for dealing with water scarcity. The data is based on a survey of more than 2,000 respondents from public utilities and private companies that deliver water to farms in 24 states.
“You need to have a plan in place to address shortages for your agency. But you can’t just have a drought policy and then [maintain] the status quo. You need to be able to assess your water supply and be able to look and try to plan appropriately and make adjustments as needed,” says Vince Lucchesi, general manager of the Patterson Irrigation District in California’s Central Valley.
The district adopted a plan in 2014 that details how water would be rationed to landowners if supply were to fall short of demand — a situation the district narrowly avoided in 2015 and 2021.
Read the full story.
More Articles Worth a Read
Here are more stories from special districts around the country. Share your own news with us for inclusion in the next newsletter.
Five parts of the infrastructure bill you might have missed.Less publicized initiatives could help transportation, water and fire districts.
U.S Department of Transportation outlines a path forward for infrastructure spending. The department will disburse millions of dollars from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act through 44 new programs designed to upgrade nearly every part of the nation’s transportation system.
