Whenever specifically authorized by the Legislature, the department may lend the local agency the funds necessary to pay the local portion of the costs of lands, easements, and rights-of-way determined in subdivisions (b) and (d) of Section 12866.2, less any credit for previously acquired lands determined under Section 12866.3. The state loan may not exceed a period of 10 years and the rate of interest on the loan shall be the current rate for the state’s Pooled Money Investment Account. The loan shall be repaid in annual installments beginning one year after the loan is made. The annual loan payment shall be deducted from the state’s annual tax subvention to the local agency, if any. In the event that the local agency does not receive tax subventions from the state adequate to make the loan payment and becomes in default of the loan payments, the local agency, notwithstanding any other provisions of any statute limiting its tax ceiling, shall levy sufficient taxes to repay the loan. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, any local agency authorized to participate in the construction of watershed protection projects is authorized to accept the loans authorized pursuant to this section.
(Amended by Stats. 1974, Ch. 1054.)