Below is a full statement from the governor's office regarding funds for the Paradise Irrigation District.

California must now close a $54 billion budget shortfall caused by the COVID-19 recession. More than $13 billion of that shortfall falls In the fiscal year ending six weeks from now. One of the steps required to do that to do that is to redirect money that was put in last year’s budget, but which hasn’t been spent over the past 11 months.

That’s the case here. A total of $14.7 million for this project was approved last June, but only half of that has been spent since then. We’ve proposed redirecting the unspent balance to help close that $13 billion shortfall in the current year. And we’ve also proposed doing the same thing for other projects across the state where unspent funds this year total more than $200 million.

The immediate necessity to close this shortfall is what drove this proposal – not politics, and not any policy disagreement. And along with the other projects with unspent funds this year, the decision to do this still requires a vote by the Legislature.