Last week, the Department of Finance discovered several drafting errors in the state’s budget, leaving the CDFA with $40 million less for its Healthy Soils Program (HSP).
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross issued an apology to stakeholders for the accounting mistake.
"We recognize the disruption this causes in your plans to achieve greenhouse gas mitigation and climate resilience on your lands and in your communities, as well as the challenges that budget reductions pose for meeting the state’s climate goals for natural and working lands," said Ross.
Now, HSP funding for direct-to-producer grants will be approximately $11 million after absorbing the unanticipated reduction. Given the delay this budget change caused in executing Climate Smart Agriculture Technical Assistance (CSA TA) grants to support the HSP solicitation, the CDFA now plans to open the solicitation in early January and will confirm this date on the HSP webpage when they execute all the TA grants.
“We are hopeful that preliminary revenue trends this year will improve, but we must all be prepared to work together in a vastly changed budget scenario,” Ross noted in her letter to partners. “We appreciate all your support in building the very successful Healthy Soils Program and remain optimistic that while this slows us down, we will still move confidently forward toward our climate goals.”
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