A statewide coalition, including the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley (Water Blueprint) submitted an appropriations request of $6.5B to the Governor and California lawmakers. The request would build statewide drought and flood resilience by securing investments from the State’s General Fund budget for fiscal year 2022-2023. Included in the funding request is $585 million for subsidence repairs that have been a focus of Senator Hurtado’s SB 559.
Years of siloed or local approaches to solving our broader water issues have been unsuccessful. As population growth in urban and suburban California has overtaken the voice of rural California, it is vital that agriculture work with broader coalitions that can reach additional legislative representatives. The Water Blueprint is an effort to find common ground within the region, and then build support outside of the region for our needs.
As a founding member of the Water Blueprint, California Citrus Mutual will continue to be a strong advocate for water districts, agricultural organizations, and local communities to come together and improve upon the outdated model of siloed requests on water.
