BILL NUMBER: AB 1242 AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 14, 2002 AMENDED IN SENATE FEBRUARY 4, 2002 AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 14, 2001 AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 7, 2001 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 31, 2001 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 23, 2001 INTRODUCED BY AssemblyMember WigginsMembers Wiggins and Florez(Coauthor: Senator Chesbro)(Principal coauthor: Senator Costa) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Hollingsworth, Rod Pacheco, and Zettel) (Coauthors: Senators Alpert, Battin, Bowen, Chesbro, Haynes, Johannessen, Kuehl, Machado, Poochigian, Soto, and Torlakson) FEBRUARY 23, 2001 An act relating to the glassy-winged sharpshooter, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1242, as amended, Wiggins. Pest control: glassy-winged sharpshooter. Existing law generally creates programs in the Department of Food and Agriculture for eradication of Pierce's disease and its vector the glassy-winged sharpshooter. This bill would state various findings and declarations relating to the glassy-winged sharpshooter and Pierce's disease and their effect on the wine and grape industry. This bill would appropriate $7,140,000 in federal funds made available to the department,to the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund, to be distributed via grants, as specified. The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the following: (a) California is the leading producer of wine in the United States, accounting for 91 percent of the total United States wine production and 72 percent of total wine sales. (b) The glassy-winged sharpshooter is a potent vector for Pierce's disease that has the potential to harm California's multibillion dollar wine industry by transmitting the bacterium Xylella Fastidiosa. This bacterium destroys wine grape plants by shutting down the plant's ability to take up water and nutrients. (c) To date, the glassy-winged sharpshooter and the resulting Pierce's disease have destroyed millions of dollars of California's most productive wine and table grape vines. This has resulted in rural unemployment and severely threatens local rural economies. SEC. 2.FederalThe sum of seven million one hundred forty thousand dollars ($7,140,000) in federal funds made available to the Department of Food and Agriculture pursuant to Public Law 106-224, and pursuant to regulations and guidelines adopted thereunder, to compensate grape growers for vine losses resulting from Pierce's disease spread by the glassy-winged sharpshooter, are hereby appropriated to the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund for distribution via individual grants and to cover reasonable administrative costs in accordance with criteria established by the department, consistent with federal guidelines. Funds appropriated pursuant to this section shall be available for expenditure by the department until September 30, 2003. SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are: In order to restore rural economic stability to grape production areas of California at the earliest possible time, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.