No New Taxes... Except This One
It's time for California Ag Today. On the Ag Information Network, I am Haylie Shipp.
California's budget deficit is at least $45 billion, a shortfall so large it prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month to revise the state budget plan and state that California should live within its means and avoid raising taxes.
It’s that last part, “avoid raising taxes,” that caused a pause for the California Farm Bureau.
The governor is currently proposing an increase in the mill tax levied on pesticides to address the budget deficit of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. The plan to raise the mill tax from 21 mills to 28.6 mills over a three-year period, along with significant increases in registration and licensing fees, would amount to a $33 million tax increase statewide according to the California Farm Bureau.
I recently spoke with Chris Reardon, Director of Governmental Affairs with the organization…
“Consistent with the Governor’s message, he doesn’t want to raise taxes, and it’s clearly a tax on my farmers who are purchasing pesticides or any other crop protection material. They’re no question going to to pay more in the state.”
From California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass, “Raising the mill tax would also increase costs of producing food for Californians and burden families with still higher food prices at the grocery store.”
