• Arizona’s Water Infrastructure Finance Authority faces a tough budget year with limited funds • Lawmakers have cut or clawed back promised funds, leaving the agency with less than $400 million • WIFA’s board is preparing to launch a $96 million loan program for in-state water providers

It’s bad to be sitting on a pot of money if you’re a state agency in a tough budget year.

That’s a lesson that board members of the obscure entity charged with finding new water supplies for drought-plagued Arizona learned over the past two years.

Sitting on a pot of cash makes you a target when state lawmakers, facing a budget shortfall for basic state services, are looking around for places from which to grab it.

Members of the board overseeing the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority have alre

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