On Monday, May 9th near the State Capitol, Jacob Villagomez on behalf of CCM, stood alongside a bipartisan group legislators, agricultural associations, and growers to urge the Administration to use general fund surplus dollars to fully fund SB-559 (Hurtado) as current LAO estimates show that surplus to be around $68B. Villagomez highlighted that “like consumers, California growers too are squeezed by increasing prices of doing businesses, lack of supporting infrastructure, port congestion, climate change, besides the drought”. The group provided multiple pleas for relief to mitigate the amount of land going out of agricultural production, to protect farmworkers from lay-offs and to improve our existing water storage capacities during wet years.
SB 559, also known as the State Water Resiliency Act of 2021, would have allocated $785 million to repair the Friant-Kern Canal, the Delta-Mendota Canal, and major portions of the California Aqueduct, which have been compromised by subsidence, age, and neglect. To supplement the efforts of the Water Blueprint and the citrus industry, it is vital that CCM and its members have a seat at the table by supporting legislators and searching for common ground.
