{"id":51130,"date":"2024-01-11T13:43:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T21:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/?post_type=pan_blog&p=51130"},"modified":"2024-03-04T09:57:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T17:57:56","slug":"during-budget-deficit-governor-newsom-invests-in-safer-agriculture-practices","status":"publish","type":"pan_blog","link":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/news\/during-budget-deficit-governor-newsom-invests-in-safer-agriculture-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"During budget deficit, Governor Newsom invests in safer agriculture practices"},"content":{"rendered":"
For Immediate Release
\nJanuary 11, 2024<\/p>\n
Contact:
\nKayla Nichols, kayla@panna.org
\nJane Sellen, jane@pesticidereform.org<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, January 10th, Governor Newsom released a request to the California legislature to approve a $33.3 million increase in funds and 117 new positions at the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).<\/p>\n
The increased funding would predominantly come from an increase in the pesticide mill fee, which is a fee assessed at the first point of a pesticide sale in California. This fee is responsible for about 80% of DPR\u2019s funding, and has not been adjusted for 20 years\u2014remaining stagnant at $0.021 for every dollar of pesticide sales.<\/p>\n
According to DPR, revenues generated by the mill fee have not kept pace with its funding needs in order to implement its mission to regulate pesticides and protect public health and the environment. DPR released a sustainable pest management roadmap<\/a> last year that detailed increased investments needed to transition away from hazardous pesticides.<\/p>\n DPR is proposing to increase the fee to $.0286 over a three-year period. This is significantly lower than the increase recommended by the third-party study<\/a> on the mill fee, which recommended increasing the mill fee to $0.0339 in order to fully meet DPR\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n The proposed increased pesticide mill fee would need to be approved by the state legislature, likely with a two-thirds majority vote. The legislature rejected an increase in the mill fee the last time one was proposed by DPR in 2021 after strong opposition from the agriculture industry.<\/p>\n If passed, the funding would go towards myriad activities, such as expedited registration of new pesticides, improved monitoring of pesticide impacts, better engagement with impacted communities and farmworkers, and development of a list of high-risk pesticides for review. DPR aims to increase \u201cregistration actions\u201d for new pesticides from 3,500 this year to 4,050, while increasing the number of pesticide safety re-evaluations from 5 per year to 5-8 per year.<\/p>\n Despite an overall proposed increase in DPR funding, the Governor also proposed a $2.6 million cut in funding appropriated in 2021 to develop a statewide pesticide notification system.<\/p>\n