Latest in Paso Robles Groundwater Basin war: New tax rejected

August 1, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

As part of a more than decade-long war over control of the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, the newly formed joint powers authority’s plan to tax landowners over the basin failed on Friday.

During Friday’s meeting that included the ability for the public to attend and comment through Zoom, a hacker took over the screen with a white board that included a swastika and a racist word. Then suddenly, a video of a naked man masturbating took over the screen.

The Paso Robles Area Groundwater Authority then shut off Zoom.

A  group of people has fought for years to require landowners over the Paso Robles water basin to pay a fee for water usage. Officials from San Luis Obispo County, the City of Paso Robles, the Shandon-San Juan Water District and the Estrella-El Pomar-Creston Water District recently voted to create a joint powers authority to provide the power to levy taxes on those above the basin.

The basin was previously managed under a memorandum of agreement that included San Luis Obispo County and the mutiple water districts.

In 2016, nearly 80% of property owners above the basin voted against the creation of a new water district and its affiliated fees after opponents went door to door explaining the issues.

Even so, large agricultural businesses continued their pursuit of fees on residential properties and control of the basin, which included creating the Shandon-San Juan Water and the Estrella-El Pomar-Creston Water districts.

Approximately 9% of those over the basin are large corporate landowners who use 90% of the basin water. The goal of the joint powers authority was to have corporate landowners pay larger fees while charging a tax on everyone in rural areas with wells over the basin, including small residential properties.

After the SLO County Board of Supervisors and the Paso Robles City Council voted for the new joint powers authority, opponents of the authority began putting together a plan to stop the proposed fees for the joint powers authority through a 218 vote.

Proposition 218 was passed to ensure that property owners have an opportunity to vote on all new taxes.

Amid complaints regarding charging residential users, both of the water districts announced plans to restructure the joint powers authority, including no longer charging the small residential users.

In the end, there were approximately 1,300 parcels included in the proposed taxpayer base.

At the beginning of the meeting on Friday, the Paso Robles Area Groundwater Authority announced they had counted the mailed in protest votes, which equaled 689, which was more than the 50% plus one needed to stop the proposed tax.

In addition, another 75 protest votes were turned in at the meeting for a total of 764, or a 59% to 41% win for the protesters.

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