Section 53398.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares that the North American Free Trade Agreement has resulted in a dramatic increase in trade with Mexico. In 1998 companies in California exported over $13.3 billion worth of goods to Mexico, and more than 80,000 jobs throughout the state are the direct result of this trade. This increased trade has strained the inadequate public infrastructure in the region just north of the international border.

(b) The Legislature further finds and declares that there is a significant opportunity for industrial development, including high technology and biotechnology manufacturing, in the region along the border. However, this region lacks the public infrastructure necessary to support new development or to provide for the rapid and reliable delivery of supplies to, and distribution of products from, companies throughout the state.

(c) The Legislature finds and declares that the state and federal governments have withdrawn in whole or in part from their former role in financing infrastructure facilities, including highways, roads and interchanges, sewage facilities and water reclamation works, water supply and treatment works, flood control and drainage works, schools, libraries, parks, parking facilities, open space, and seismic retrofit and rehabilitation of public facilities.

(d) The Legislature further finds and declares that the methods available to local agencies to finance public works often place an undue and unfair burden on buyers of new homes, especially for public works that benefit the broader community.

(e) The Legislature further finds and declares that the absence of practical and equitable methods for financing both regional and local public works leads to a declining standard of public works, a failure to construct new public works needed to support new commercial and industrial development in the region along the border, a reduced quality of life and decreased safety for affected citizens, increased objection to otherwise desirable development, and excessive costs for homebuyers.

(f) The Legislature further finds and declares that it is equitable and in the public interest to provide alternative procedures for financing public works and services needed to support new commercial and industrial development in the region along the border that would generate significant new employment opportunities.

(Added by Stats. 1999, Ch. 773, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2000.)