CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Gov. Jim Gibbons has signed into law a measure allowing Washoe County to create a new flood control authority with the power to raise fees needed to continue work on a
$1.5 billion flood management project.

SB175 was passed by the Legislature on the final day of the 2009 session after being freed of a hostile amendment that many feared would prompt the governor to veto the measure.

Work on the $1.5 billion Truckee River Flood Control Project, to be funded mostly by the Army Corps of Engineers, began shortly after a devastating 1997 flood. Local officials must raise about $400 million to match the federal dollars being spent on the project.

The law allows Washoe and Storey counties to join with Reno, Sparks and the University of Nevada, Reno to form a new governing board with the power to raise fees to meet that local match and use the county credit rating to sell bonds.

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