The Legislative Analyst’s Office has sent lawmakers a list of environmental and resource spending to pull back if the deficit worsens. The recommendations will inform the Legislature’s budget priorities in negotiations with the administration.
Among the water provisions, the state could rescind $500 million Gov. Gavin Newsom has set aside for water storage infrastructure. The financial analysts assume that clawing the dollars back would be less disruptive than other budget cutbacks, since the administration has not spent the money and has yet to dole out the rest of the $2.7 billion in Prop. 1 water bond dollars.
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The LAO report also recommends trimming another $35 million from the Food Production Investment Program, beyond the $19 million Newsom has proposed. FPIP would retain $46 million, 62% of its original funding.
CDFA, meanwhile, is sitting on $50 million for its Farm to School Program, after spending $40 million so far. The department plans to issue more grant awards this spring. Since the program is new and has uncommitted funds, LAO recommends pulling back some of the money and scaling down the program. But lawmakers would have to act now to block CDFA from drawing down those funds.
