YOUR DUES DOLLARS AT WORK CATTLEMEN’S PRIORITIES ELEVATED IN BUDGET AND PROPOSED CLIMATE BOND by CCA Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur As the calendar flipped from June to July, lawmakers in Sacramento worked at a feverish pace to meet constitutional, statutory and practical deadlines to lay out the state’s financial future. While legislators had passed a Budget Act by June 13, that bill was merely a placeholder intended to meet the June 15 Constitutional deadline by which legislators must pass a budget or forfeit their salaries; the bill did not reflect final negotiations between legislative leaders and Governor Gavin Newsom’s Administration. A revised Budget Act needed to be in place ahead of July 1, the beginning of the state’s 2024-25 Fiscal Year. In addition to the Budget, lawmakers were also rushing to finalize a Climate Bond to place before voters on the November General Election ballot. Under the State’s Election Code, bond measures must be adopted 131 days prior to an election to appear on the ballot, or June 27 for this year’s Nov. 5 election. Because that deadline is statutory in nature, however, legislators may waive it in subsequent legislation – including within the text of a bond measure. Nevertheless, the Legislature had a hard deadline of July 3 to pass a Climate Bond, as that was the final date by which the Secretary of State could guarantee that details of the measure would be included in the Voter Information Guide sent to registered voters (it also happened to be the final day before the Legislature was scheduled to take a month-long recess). Revised Budget Reflects CCA Priorities When the Legislature approved a placeholder Budget on June 13, CCA hailed it as a victory for many of the Association’s fiscal priorities. In the weeks that followed, discussions continued among Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), Senate President
pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and Governor Newsom to craft a revised Budget Act reflecting a negotiated compromise between the Assembly, Senate and Administration. The final Budget Act signed into law on June 29 retained the CCA victories reflected in the June 13 bill, with one notable addition: $600,000 in renewed funding for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program. Below is a discussion of how each of CCA’s greatest fiscal priorities fared in the 2024-25 Budget. CDFW Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program Funding In 2021, the Legislature allocated $3 million to CDFW to compensate ranchers “for the deterrence of wolf presence near livestock, the impacts of wolf presence on livestock, and for verified loss of livestock for participating ranchers.” The Department quickly operationalized its direct loss and non-lethal deterrence compensation programs, and in June of last year operationalized its “Pay for Presence” program, which aimed to compensate ranchers for impacts to their cattle herds caused by wolf presence. Unfortunately, in January the Department announced that the Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program’s funding was nearly exhausted and “there may not be sufficient funds available for applications submitted from this point forward.” The Program’s funding was officially depleted as of March 8. Fortunately, CCA members had anticipated the Compensation Program’s depletion, and at the 2023 Annual Convention directed CCA staff to aggressively lobby for renewed funding for the Program. CCA’s advocacy faced enormous headwinds amidst a budget deficit initially pegged at $37.9 billion in January (and which increased to $46.8 billion during the six-month budget process), but CCA staff and members steadfastly and aggressively lobbied for renewed compensation funding as the Association’s greatest priority of the 2024-25 budget cycle. CCA joined with Defenders of Wildlife and the California Farm Bureau in fighting for compensation funding. Defenders promoted the value of non-lethal deterrence for wolf conservation and recognized the benefits of ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
18 California Cattleman August 2024