By TIM HEARDEN

Capital Press

SACRAMENTO — The $96.4 billion revised budget proposal that Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled May 14 increases spending for the California Department of Food and Agriculture after several years of cuts.

The governor’s proposed $61.9 million general fund allocation to CDFA is unchanged from the rosy fiscal outlook he presented in January, and the ledger sets aside $2.5 million for research to combat the Asian citrus psyllid and citrus greening.

“That comes through assessment dollars on a larger citrus crop than was expected,” agency spokesman Jay Van Rein said.

The proposal for fiscal 2013-2014 represents a slight increase for CDFA from the $60.3 million the department received for the current fiscal year. The agency’s overall budget for 2013-2014 is projected at $215.2 million, up slightly from the January ledger.

The agency would keep all of its roughly 1,975 employees, including the nearly 1,270 in its agricultural plant and animal health, pest prevention and food safety services.

The status-quo budget comes after the department’s annual general fund contribution dropped from $99 million a few years ago. Previous cuts primarily affected programs related to border control stations, pest prevention and food safety, the governor’s office has explained.

The CDFA’s allocation is tucked inside California’s first balanced budget proposal in many years, as Brown is making use of income and sales tax increases approved by voters last November and a sunny economic outlook to mainly boost funding for education.

Aside from improved funding for public elementary and high schools, the governor’s May revision continues to seek a $500 million increase to the University of California and California State University systems from the current fiscal year, with additional increases promised in each of the next four years.

Officials from the UC’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources are not yet certain how those increases will benefit their department, spokeswoman Pamela Kan-Rice said. However, the increases bring relief to UC Cooperative Extension officials who had feared further cuts before Proposition 30 passed last year.

The budget also includes increases from fiscal 2012-2013 of more than $6.7 million and more than 60 new positions for the state Natural Resource Agency, the Water Resources Control Board and departments of Conservation, Forestry and Fire Protection and Fish and Wildlife.

The boost comes after the Legislature last year approved a 1 percent assessment on lumber and other building wood sold in California, which allowed the elimination of fees charged to in-state timber producers and lengthened the duration of timber harvest plans.

Brown’s ledger must be approved by the Legislature — a prospect that will involve much less drama now that Democrats hold supermajorities in both changers.

Online

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed and revised budgets: http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/home.php