Budget Reductions Threaten State Pesticide Regulation

The state budget signed by Gov. George Deukmejian this week threatens to disrupt California’s regulation of dangerous pesticides, most likely in the areas of worker safety and the inspection of grocery store produce, state officials and environmentalists are warning.

Those consequences could result, they said, from the recent defeat of an Assembly bill that would have nearly quadrupled the tax on producers and distributors of pesticides from 0.9 cents to 3.4 cents per dollar of pesticide sold. Budget writers had expected that the tax would raise at least $9 million a year, so they reduced the program’s share of the state general fund by that amount.

The result was that instead of winding up with a $20.8-million budget, the Food and Agriculture Department’s pest management division was allotted only $11.8 million. The pesticide tax, the victim of anti-tax sentiment among Assembly Republicans, will be reconsidered by the Legislature when it reconvenes Monday.

Defeat of the tax “will have a dramatic impact on the pesticide division. Nine million is quite a hit,” said Jim Wells, assistant chief of the division. “We will lose a big chunk of our budget, which will lead to a great cutback in our activities.”

In the absence of necessary funds, Wells said, the department will move rapidly to decide which operations to scale back. The leading candidates, he said, are programs designed to safeguard farm workers from dangerous pesticides and check fruits and vegetables for high levels of toxic chemicals.

Wells said the department will continue to register all pesticides used in California and conduct toxicological research into their safety, because that program is required by law and funded by a fee on pesticide producers. In contrast, the part of the program most likely to be cut is paid for by discretionary funds.

Environmentalists said the state is risking a severe effect on public health and the environment.

“Any cuts in an already weak program would be a disaster for farm workers and the public. The regulatory programs need to be increased, not decreased,” said Ralph Lightstone, an attorney with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. “Last year, physicians in California reported more acute pesticide poisonings than any year in the past. There is also more pesticide contamination of the air and water than ever before.”

The Food and Agriculture Department’s pesticide division is responsible for regulating all pesticides in California, ranging from household chemicals such as bleach to Medfly-killing malathion. The department’s 230 employees monitor about 11,000 products containing toxic chemicals and register all toxic chemicals sold in the state.

The pesticide division also has a worker safety branch that conducts field studies of pesticide use and investigates cases of pesticide-caused illness; an environmental monitoring section that checks the air and water for pesticide contamination, and a bureau that samples 15,000 fruits and vegetables a year to make sure they do not contain dangerously high levels of chemical residues.

Budget analysts said it would not be easy to restore funds in those areas. Increasing the pesticide division’s budget would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature for the pesticide tax or a supplemental appropriation, said an Assembly budget analyst. “You don’t have two-thirds of the people around here who agree to do anything.”