Vote NO on Tuscan Water District Property Tax

We Don't Need Another Layer of Taxing Government.

Groundwater for Butte (G4B) urges all landowners within the proposed Tuscan Water District (TWD) to vote “NO: do not approve the special benefit assessment” on their vote-by-mail ballots, due January 15, 2025.

Please help us sustain our get-out-the-no-vote campaign! Many have already donated to help us cover postage and printing to alert property owners. Please do your part for the future of our community by donating any amount, however small, to our effort at this link.

If you have any time to visit your neighbors and discuss it with them, or wish to join us in our door-to-door outreach effort, please email us at groundwaterforbutte.gmail.com.

Canvassing is a hugely rewarding exercise in community building. We are meeting people of all kinds who are confused or angry about what is going on. After hearing our concerns and sharing their own, most people we have spoken to end up leaning toward voting no, or deciding they will definitely do not want to pay for the TWD. 

WHY OPPOSE FUNDING THE TUSCAN WATER DISTRICT?

The TWD's undemocratic structure prioritizes the largest six landowners, and excludes urban areas like Chico and Durham from decision-making, despite their shared reliance on the Vina Subbasin. The TWD adds unnecessary bureaucracy and an additional tax to the assessment already being imposed by the Vina GSA. For farmers already struggling with reduced nut prices, a second tax burden could be financially devastating. The TWD also threatens small farms with shallow wells, homeowners with domestic wells, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Vote NO and oppose the Tuscan Water District to protect our groundwater!

The Tuscan Water District was formed several years ago by a group of private landowners in meetings closed to the public. The TWD boundaries were drawn to create an entirely agricultural district, an area covering less than half of the Vina Subbasin. TWD boundaries exclude the more densely populated Chico and Durham, which also overlie the Vina Subbasin and draw from the same water. 

California law allows the Tuscan Water District’s voting system to be based on the dollar value of the land rather than the democratic principle of “one-person/one-vote,” which means that decision-making power rests in landowners with the highest-valued land, while negating the voting powers and voices of the thousands of smaller farms and homeowners within the proposed TWD.

Due to this rigged voting system, in December 2023, the TWD was established by 4% of the district’s landowners, who possess 43% of the total land value. However, a separate vote is now required to approve funding. On November 29, TWD landowners received a vote-by-mail ballot to vote Yes or No to assess themselves a yearly fee based on the acreage of their land. The last day to submit ballots is January 15.

Groundwater for Butte is urging TWD landowners to vote NO, based on the above concerns and several others:

Legal opinions question the validity of this election because it violates Prop.13 and the California Constitution by imposing a new tax without approval from 2/3’s of eligible voters.

TWD is considered to be the “implementation arm” for the entire Vina Subbasin, yet the area within the TWD boundaries covers less than half of the officially designated Vina Subbasin (see attached map). The City of Chico draws from the same aquifer and occupies more than half of the land area over the Vina Subbasin. Despite having a vastly larger population than landowners within the proposed TWD, Chico residents have no decision-making power over the water they depend on. 

Proponents of the Tuscan Water District claim that TWD will guarantee “local control” of our groundwater. Yet, the wealthiest farm in the TWD, valued at $35+million, is based in Salt Lake City, Utah and the fourth largest farm, valued at $10 million, is based in Concord, CA. The top six landowners make up less than 0.3% of the TWD voting population but account for 11.7% of the assessed land value in the district. With votes weighted by land value, the average vote of these six landowners is 39 times more influential than the average vote of the other 2,011 voters in the proposed district. Thus, most local farmers including generational family farms will not have a fair say regarding their groundwater.    

The TWD’s stated purpose,” to develop, construct, and operate facilities to purchase, import, move, recharge and transfer water,” would give the Board of the TWD authority for an unprecedented drawdown of groundwater levels, up to 200% beyond historic lows. Such a drawdown will have severe negative impacts on the shallower wells of small farms and domestic wells, and the shallow roots of trees and other species dependent on a healthy water table, thus introducing the very real danger that wells will go dry and groundwater dependent ecosystems, including Bidwell Park, Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park and the Sacramento Valley’s signature Valley Oak, will die for lack of accessible groundwater. 

TWD adds an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. The Vina Groundwater Sustainability Agency and Butte County Department of Water and Resource Conservation are already in a position to manage groundwater sustainably. TWD property owners are already paying new assessments for the Vina GSA. With approval of this vote, TWD landowners will be required to pay two fees for using the same water—a double tax. 

The Solution:

We don’t need another layer of government. Wouldn’t it be simpler, less costly, and more democratic to have one water district for all of Butte County? We need a county-wide water district that serves equally all who draw on the same water, managed for the public by a public entity: Butte County. 

Groundwater for Butte’s message to TWD landowners is, “Vote NO on Tuscan Water District.”

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We oppose the formation of the Tuscan Water District and demand that Butte County officials step up to their responsibilities under State law. The groundwater belongs to the public and must be managed transparently by publicly elected authorities - not privatized as a "water bank."