Governor's Budget Cuts Prompt Water Worries
It’s time for California Ag Today. On the Ag Information Network, I am Haylie Shipp.
A handful of days back, Gov. Gavin Newsom presented his revised state budget plan, including spending cuts to address California’s historic budget deficit. As you can imagine, there’s been some reaction including a retort from the California Farm Bureau Federation when it comes to water. Here’s what’s going on…
The governor’s budget proposal includes discretionary spending cuts that stand to delay some funding sources for water-storage projects, including the planned Sites Reservoir north of Sacramento. Funding awarded to the project under the Proposition 1 ballot initiative, approved by voters in 2014, is not affected by the current budget crisis. But $500 million in discretionary funding to support the project would be cut under the governor’s spending plan.
On Tuesday I spoke with Chris Reardon, Director of Governmental Affairs with the California Farm Bureau, while he was at the Capitol…
“We’d rather not remove that money. And our hope is, and I think they did make some commitment, to put that money back in future budgets. So we’re going to be watching for that issue very carefull because a half-million dollars is real money.”
The California Farm Bureau is urging the administration to restore the $500 million as soon as possible to ensure minimal delays on this generational investment in water resilience.
