Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia of Coachella has revised a spot bill that initially proposed a sustainable pest management work group. The measure now deals with the mill assessment for pesticide sales.
Assembly Bill 2113 would increase the mill by more than 60% over the next three years.
The proposal mirrors a recommendation from an outside consultant the Department of Pesticide Regulation hired to examine ways to overhaul the mill.
DPR has been struggling with a longstanding structural deficit. Yet the Newsom administration filed a budget trailer bill last month detailing how it would spend a portion of the money on its controversial plan to ban certain pesticides by 2050. The sales tax boost would fund 117 positions and generate $33 million.
It’s easy to be “in the know” about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Sign up for a FREE month of Agri-Pulse news! Simply click here.
Such a tax change, however, requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, which is likely why Garcia dropped the budget proposal into a policy bill. This also provides an opportunity for farm lobbyists and other potential opponents to publicly debate the bill.
AB 2113 would also allow DPR to sidestep the California Environmental Quality Act when granting emergency regulatory exemptions. Without that, environmental groups could sue to block the use of pesticides needed to combat invasive species outbreaks.
