YOUR DUES DOLLARS AT WORK CCA PUSHES INCLUSION OF GRAZING IN 2024 CLIMATE BOND by CCA Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur Legislators returned from Summer Recess on Aug. 14 with exactly one month left to dispense with their 2023 workload before Session ends on Sept. 14. In addition to the hundreds of bills to be considered in appropriations committees and debated in floor votes, legislators this year are considering an ambitious – and expensive – slate of bond bills to put before California voters on the March primary election ballot and November general election ballot. Legislators have proposed a slew of bond bills this year addressing issues such as mental health and homelessness, climate change and education. The proposals are partly spurred by this year’s budget deficit, which resulted in lawmakers reining in spending on these priorities as they negotiated the 2023-24 State Budget. Governor Gavin Newsom has expressed his priority that a $4.7 billion bond seeking to address homelessness by investing in behavioral health treatment stand alone on the March primary ballot, making it likely – though not certain – that any other bonds would be pushed to the November general election ballot. For a bond to appear on the March ballot, it would need to be passed by twothirds of the Legislature by Sept. 14 and approved by the Governor. Legislators have a little more time to consider bond bills for the November election, with negotiations potentially spilling into the second year of the 2023-24 legislative session. As representatives of ranchers stewarding the state’s natural resources, CCA has been particularly invested in this year’s discussions surrounding a climate resiliency bond. At least five climate bond proposals have been working their way through the Legislature this year. Assemblyman Carlos Villapudua (D-Stockton) introduced Assembly Bill 305, the $4.5 billion
18 California Cattleman September 2023
California Flood Protection Bond Act of 2024. Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) filed AB 1567, a nearly $16 billion bond proposal addressing virtually every facet of climate policy. Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) authored Senate Bill 867, a similarly-sweeping $15.5 billion proposal. And Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) has pushed SB 638, the $6 billion “Climate Resiliency and Flood Protection Bond Act of 2024.” Finally, there’s CCA-supported AB 408, a $3.65 billion proposal by Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D-Fairfield) titled the “Climate-resilient Farms, Sustainable Healthy Food Access, and Farmworker Protection Bond Act of 2024.” There is absolutely no appetite in Sacramento to confuse voters with a slate of competing climate bonds in 2024, meaning that lawmakers are likely to negotiate a final climate bond proposal cobbled together from existing provisions of the five proposals currently pending in the Legislature. Legislators are actively negotiating the contours of the climate bond proposal throughout the final month of the 2023 legislative year. CCA’s priority is to ensure that any climate bond put before voters in 2024 recognizes the value that livestock grazing has for fire-fuels management, carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat and other ecological purposes. This recognition of grazing’s benefits is what led CCA to support Asm. Wilson’s AB 408. That bill proposes $80 million in funding to the California Department of Food and Agriculture to fund “grants for livestock and dairy producers to reduce their methane emissions and increase carbon sequestration,” including via prescribed grazing. The measure also proposes that $35 million be ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 19