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After experiencing budget surpluses in 2021-2022, the state of California experienced two years of <\/span>budget deficits in 2023-2024<\/span><\/a>, resulting in budget clawbacks, reluctance to invest in new programs, and a higher-than-usual veto rate, which affected a number of our priority bills.<\/span><\/p>\n The good news:<\/span><\/p>\n As those two examples illustrate, changing policy requires time, persistence, and community. Our policy successes were possible because of people like you\u2014supporting our policy work by sharing your stories, lobbying in the capitol, and raising awareness. Together, we will continue to make progress!<\/span><\/p>\n Below, we provide more details on our wins, as well as some losses, in the 2024 legislative session.<\/span><\/p>\n Amidst an extreme heat wave and multiple active wildfires, a <\/span>bipartisan supermajority<\/span><\/i> of California legislators passed a historic $10 billion climate resilience bond in July, now on the November ballot as Proposition 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If approved by a majority of voters in November, Prop 4 will catalyze a wide range of investments to make rural and agricultural communities safer and more resilient to wildfires, floods, droughts, and extreme heat. This includes unprecedented investments of hundreds of millions of dollars in climate smart agriculture, local food system infrastructure, and farmworker health and well-being. See our <\/span>previous blog for a breakdown of Prop 4\u2019s investments<\/span><\/a>. Special thanks to Speaker Robert Rivas, Assemblymember Lori Wilson, their legislative staff, and members of the Food and Farm Resilience Coalition for four years of tireless advocacy!<\/span><\/p>\n By investing now in making our communities more resilient to increasing extreme weather, we will save tens of billions of dollars in disaster relief and recovery later. For example, wildfires alone caused<\/span> an average of <\/span>$117 billion in economic damages annually<\/span><\/a> in California, including loss of life and property damage, between 2017-2021. Of this amount, an estimated $5 billion annually was incurred as a fiscal loss by the State of California due to reduced tax revenues and increased wildfire response costs.<\/span><\/p>\n Now we need you to help by voting Yes on Prop 4!<\/b><\/p>\n In the meantime, check out the official <\/span>Yes on 4 website<\/span><\/a> and our <\/span>previous blog <\/span><\/a>for more information. We\u2019ll be sharing more about Prop 4 in our blog next week.<\/p>\n The Governor signed <\/span>SB 675<\/span><\/a>, authored by Senator Monique Lim\u00f3n (D-Santa Barbara), on September 27. This achievement marks an important milestone in the years-long effort to more fully integrate prescribed grazing into the state\u2019s wildfire resilience strategies, policies, and programs.<\/span><\/p>\n Wildfires have caused <\/span>billions of dollars<\/span><\/a> of damage in recent years and taken a heavy toll on California communities, including skyrocketing insurance premiums, hazardous levels of smoke, and loss of life. These fires have also become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state (e.g. the <\/span>second largest source<\/span><\/a> in 2020), further fueling climate change and catastrophic wildfire conditions. Prescribed grazing is a versatile, ecologically-based wildfire mitigation strategy with many <\/span>co-benefits<\/span><\/a>. Prescribed grazing naturally cycles nutrients, stores carbon, and removes fuels from the landscape by converting vegetation into food, fiber, and manure. Prescribed grazing can also be safer, more cost-effective, and better received by the public than herbicidal, mechanical, and prescribed fire treatments, depending on the location, available infrastructure, and management goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n SB 675 advances prescribed grazing as a multi-benefit wildfire solution by:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We thank Senator Lim\u00f3n and her staff for their collaboration and persistence over the past two years working on this legislation. We also thank the broad coalition that supported the bill, which included 57 agricultural, environmental, public health, local government, and fire safety organizations, as well as many experts and practitioners in the fields of prescribed grazing, rangeland ecology, and firefighting. We will continue engaging our partners in the implementation of SB 675, including the development of the guidance, best management practices, and strategic action plan called for by the bill.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n AB 2313<\/span><\/a>, authored by Assemblymember Bennett (D-Ventura), was vetoed by the Governor due to the state\u2019s budget deficit and the lack of funding allocated to implement the program in this year\u2019s budget. AB 2313 was CalCAN and <\/span>CAFF\u2019s<\/span><\/a> co-sponsored bill that would have directed the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to develop a program to fund equipment sharing. These programs would allow farmers to borrow or lease high-value equipment from regional agricultural centers that purchase and maintain equipment for healthy soils practices, on-farm conservation practices, storage, and processing. To learn more about equipment sharing, see our previous <\/span>blog post<\/span><\/a> highlighting the work of the California Plowshares equipment-sharing program in Southern California.<\/span><\/p>\n But there is hope in Proposition 4<\/b>. Thanks to our collective advocacy on AB 2313, we were able to secure $15 million in funding for equipment sharing in Prop 4. If Prop 4 is approved by a majority of voters this fall, there will be funds available in the years ahead for CDFA to implement an equipment-sharing program. If that happens, we will continue working with the coalition that supported AB 2313 and our partners at CDFA to establish a new equipment-sharing program building on the framework outlined in AB 2313.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n CalCAN took positions on a total of 14 bills this year. Below, we summarize some of the notable wins and losses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n SB 1101<\/b><\/a> (Lim\u00f3n) \u2013 Beneficial Fire \u2013 Signed!<\/b><\/p>\n This bill expands the use of beneficial fire by:<\/span><\/p>\n SB 1448<\/b><\/a> (Hurtado) \u2013 Land Equity Task Force & Food Hub Program \u2013 Signed!<\/b><\/p>\n This bill allows appointed members of the Land Equity Task Force, which includes farmers,<\/span> to receive compensation for their time.<\/span> The bill also addresses an administrative barrier to establishing a new Farm to Community Food Hub Program at CDFA by simplifying overly prescriptive requirements for advisory committee members.<\/span><\/p>\n SB 310<\/b><\/a> (Dodd) \u2013 Cultural Burns \u2013 Signed!<\/b><\/p>\n This bill formally recognizes Tribal sovereignty with respect to cultural burning practices. The bill authorizes the Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency and local air districts to engage with Tribes on a sovereign-to-sovereign basis in order to coordinate cultural burning activities and confirm that no state or local burn permits or air quality permits are needed if such agreements are made. The bill also makes an important modification to state liability law for fire suppression costs incurred as a result of prescribed fire use.<\/span><\/p>\n SB 1016<\/b><\/a> (Gonzalez) \u2013 Latino and Indigenous Disparities Reduction \u2013 Signed!<\/b><\/p>\n This bill requires demographic data to be disaggregated by ethnicity and used to report on critical health-related outcomes, including rates of major diseases, leading causes of death, and other important health information. This bill will help the State Department of Public Health better understand and address health issues affecting farmworkers, who are disproportionately Latino and Indigenous.<\/span><\/p>\n AB 2734<\/b><\/a> (Connolly) \u2013 Healthy Soils Program & Technical Assistance Improvements \u2013 Vetoed<\/b><\/p>\n This bill would have made the following improvements to CDFA\u2019s Healthy Soils Program:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The bill also would have provided more flexibility to the Climate Smart Ag Technical Assistance Program by expanding the definition of technical assistance to include important activities like training and project implementation assistance and to allow funds to support capacity building and coordination for technical assistance providers to deliver high-quality technical assistance.<\/span><\/p>\n SB 1374<\/b><\/a> (Becker) \u2013 Net Energy Metering Aggregation \u2013 Vetoed<\/b><\/p>\n Net energy metering aggregation (NEMA) allows renewable energy that is connected to the grid through one meter to be credited against electricity use on other meters. For example, energy produced through solar panels on a barn roof could be used as a credit for energy consumed within the same billing period by an irrigation pump in a field. CalCAN was part of an agricultural coalition that successfully advocated for NEMA in California in 2012. We <\/span>wrote a progress report<\/span><\/a> on the topic in 2016. Unfortunately, the California Public Utilities Commission ended NEMA in a decision last year. SB 1374 would have reversed that decision and restored net energy metering aggregation (NEMA) for schools and multifamily residences. An earlier version of the bill also would have restored NEMA for farms and ranches.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Proposition 4: Bipartisan Bond Includes Record Sustainable Ag, Wildfire Prevention, and Drought and Flood Resilience Investments<\/b><\/h2>\n
CalCAN-Sponsored Bills<\/b><\/h2>\n
SB 675 (Lim\u00f3n) Prescribed Grazing as a Wildfire Solution: Signed!\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
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AB 2313 (Bennett) Equipment-Sharing: Vetoed, but Funded in Prop 4<\/b><\/h3>\n
Other 2024 Bills CalCAN Engaged With\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
Wins<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Losses<\/b><\/h3>\n
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