The Newsom administration is bracing for sweeping budget cuts next year to account for a $58 billion deficit. At the same time, both the Assembly and Senate will have new leaders at the start of the session.
Roger Isom, president and CEO of the Western Agricultural Processors Association, was relieved to have a speaker from a farm district with Assemblymember Robert Rivas of Salinas, since the previous speaker, Asm. Anthony Rendon of Lakewood, “just frankly didn't care about agriculture.”
He noted that Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins does care about ag and was the only reason that the Air Resources Board had funding this year for its tractor upgrade grants under the FARMER program. In February Atkins is handing over the gavel to Senator Mike McGuire, who has a close connection to the farmers in his North Coast district, and Isom is optimistic with the transition—but “the proof is in the pudding.”
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Farm lobbyists have been racing to educate a large cohort of new lawmakers this year and Isom shared his frustrations. He recently discovered one freshman assemblymember had never heard of SGMA (the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) before.
“If we’re trying to lobby for this money [for groundwater projects] and they don't even know what the word is, we've got a huge challenge,” he said.
Isom gained a sympathetic ear from Rivas recently when he told the speaker the state cannot have strict climate and SGMA goals “and not help us.” Isom noted that the industry had asked for $800 million this year to help with SGMA and got just $200 million, and he warned that every agency is now in the process of cutting its budget much further.
