State Water Resources Control Board staff presented fee-setting budget figures from the governor's January proposed budget and described the cost drivers behind small net changes for the Safe Drinking Water Account (SDWA) and the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP).

Tracy Lotz of the fee and revenue branch said the SDWA fee-setting budget for fiscal year 2024-25 was $47,980,000 and the governor's January proposed figure for 2025-26 is $48,270,000, a net increase of $287,000, or 0.6 percent. Lotz attributed the largest SDWA cost-driver increase to state operations, which rose $818,000, or 1.7 percent, primarily for employee compensation including salaries, health care and retirement. She also said there is a spending-authority reduction of $250,000 related to reduced contract funding for the Water Shutoff Protection Act and a pro rata decrease of $281,000.

On ELAP, Lotz said the fee-setting budget was $4,680,000 for 2024-25 and the governor's January proposed 2025-26 figure is $4,620,000, a net decrease of $62,000, or 1.3 percent. For ELAP, Lotz said state operations decreased by $46,000 (about 1 percent) and pro rata decreased by $16,000 (about 0.3 percent), supporting the overall ELAP decrease.

When stakeholders asked whether any positions assigned to ELAP were subject to a governor's position sweep, staff replied that information will be available in the May revise. In response to a question about how many laboratories share the ELAP program cost, an ELAP staff member (identified in the transcript as Caitlin) said, "We're sitting right around 500 laboratories right now," and added the program is seeing a slight year-over-year decrease of about 2 percent.

Staff and Deputy Director John Russell cautioned that the presented figures come from the January proposed budget and that the May revise will likely include updates. David Ciccarelli and other staff said they expect to provide revised numbers and more detailed fee-adjustment scenarios at the June stakeholder meeting. Stakeholders were told they may submit questions via the published stakeholder email address.

No votes or formal fee changes were adopted at the meeting; presenters described the numbers as preliminary and tied to the state budget timeline.