YOUR DUES DOLLARS AT WORK LAWMAKERS FINALIZE FY 2023-24 STATE BUDGET by CCA Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur On June 27, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the Budget Act of 2023, finalizing a $310.8 billion spending plan for Fiscal Year 2023-24 three days ahead of the fiscal year’s beginning. Despite Democrats holding a supermajority in both chambers of the State Legislature, budget negotiations with the Democratic Governor were not without controversy this year. Throughout much of the year disagreements centered on how best to address a roughly $32 billion deficit. Newsom was firm from the outset of budget negotiations that the state would not dip into its “Rainy Day Fund,” preserving that resource in case a recession materializes in the years to come. Newsom also shot down as a “non-starter” a proposal by Senate Democrats to bridge the state’s funding gap in part by increasing corporate taxes. Things got particularly contentious after the Governor proposed a slate of budget trailer bills to streamline infrastructure projects in mid-May, with many Democrats balking at the proposals on both substantive and procedural grounds. Among the Governor’s infrastructure proposals were reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), including a proposal to streamline construction of the Delta conveyance tunnel to transport water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California. While some Democrats opposed these policies outright, others complained that including the proposals in budget trailer bills deprived the Legislature and public the opportunity to fully vet the measures in legislative policy committees. Negotiations were contentious enough that the Governor even threatened to veto the Budget Act if legislators failed to advance his infrastructure priorities. Ultimately a compromise was struck in which the Governor’s Delta tunnel proposal was excised from the Budget while other reforms to streamline some major infrastructure projects – for instance, by limiting delays from judicial challenges to no more than 9 months “to the extent feasible” – were retained in the final bill. Below are the details of the 2023-24 Budget most relevant to California’s cattle producers.
20 California Cattleman August 2023
Flood Protection and Resilience The Budget Act includes significant allocations and policy provisions intended to improve the state’s resilience to floods and drought. While the Governor’s proposed budget, released in January, had proposed $125 million in “drought contingency” funding, in the aftermath of atmospheric rivers in late 2022 and early 2023 that caused widespread flooding throughout the state the May Revise reallocated that funding to instead address flood impacts and improve flood resilience. The final Budget increased that funding an additional $10 million, providing a total of $135 million “to support costs associated with preparedness, response, recovery, and other associated activities related to the 2023 storms, the resulting snowmelt, and other flooding risks, including, but not limited to, supporting communities…to better withstand future flood events.” In total, the Budget includes $436 million in one-time spending for flood response and resilience. To specifically address the impact of recent floods on ranchers and other agricultural producers, the 2023-24 Budget includes $20 million in funding for the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development to provide “grants to small agricultural business impacted by recent storms.” The public resources budget trailer bill, SB 122, creates another grant program – the Dam Safety and Climate Resilience Local Assistance Program, administered by the Department of Water Resources – “to provide state funding for repairs, rehabilitation, enhancements, and other dam safety projects at existing state jurisdictional dams.” Finally, the Budget Act extends a recentlyenacted policy permitting the diversion of flood flows to recharge groundwater aquifers. On March 10, in response to the numerous atmospheric rivers that had battered the state and caused widespread flooding, Governor Newsom issued an executive order suspending certain water rights ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 22