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To date, 34% of ballots have been returned. At least 40% of ballots must be postmarked by June 12 and mailed back to the California Department of Food and Agriculture to validate the referendum.
If the referendum passes, the assessment, the PD Control Program and the grower-led PD/GWSS Board will be extended for another five years, through 2031. If the referendum doesn’t pass, everything will end in March 2026.
“If the PD/GWSS assessment goes away, so do the GWSS controls and research that are protecting our vineyards—and the partnerships with leading scientists at research universities working on real solutions to pest and disease threats,” said Randy Heinzen, PD/GWSS Board Chair and Paso Robles winegrape grower. “Even more concerning, without clear industry participation, we could lose vital federal funding that keeps the destructive GWSS from spreading into key winegrape regions.”
The assessment funds critical research and activities that lessen the impact of winegrape pests and diseases, including PD, GWSS, viruses, mealybugs and spotted lanternfly. The assessment rate has remained steady for the past three years at $1.25 per $1,000 of winegrape value. Since its establishment by growers in 2001, the PD/GWSS Board has invested $60.1 million in 311 research projects.
Every winegrape producer who paid the 2024 assessment received a ballot in the mail in April, with growers operating multiple entities receiving separate ballots for each. Producers who didn’t return ballots by mid-May were mailed new duplicate ballots. Please vote, sign and return every ballot.
People who expected to receive ballots but did not, or who believe they received ballots in error, should contact the CDFA Marketing Branch. Call (916) 900-5018 or email Miranda Townsend at Miranda.Townsend@cdfa.ca.gov or Denise Sanchas at Denise.Sanchas@cdfa.ca.gov.
For the referendum to pass, either (a) at least 65% of voters, representing a majority of assessments paid, must vote “yes,” or (b) a majority of voters, representing at least 65% of assessments paid, must vote “yes.” Results are expected in late June.
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