Protect Your Vineyard

News Flash - According to the CDFA, the PD/GWSS Referendum has passed! Roughly 45 percent of California's winegrape growers voted with 84 percent voting in favor of continuing the assessment for another five years.

Since 2001, the Pierce’s Disease/Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter (PD/GWSS) assessment has been one of the primary sources of funding for research addressing deadly Pierce’s disease and its primary vector, the glassy-winged sharpshooter. Senate Bill 2 gives winegrape growers and grower/vintners the opportunity to vote on continuing the assessment until 2016.

Click Here for a video message about the referendum from A.G. Kawamura

Winegrape Assessment
In place since 2001, the assessment was initially extended to 2011 by Senate Bill 1650, which was approved by a voter referendum. The assessment allows for grapes to be assessed up to $3 per $1,000 of crop value. For the past two years the assessment rate has been set at $1 per $1,000.
The assessment raises essential dollars for research aimed at addressing the threat posed by PD and its vectors. Every dollar raised by growers is leveraged more than tenfold by local, state and federal funds to cover the significant costs of GWSS detection and containment programs. Senate Bill 2 expanded the potential uses of the assessment to include research and outreach for other pests and diseases of winegrapes, under certain specified conditions.
Voting	Passage Requirements
All entities that paid the assessment on grapes crushed in 2009 are eligible to vote in the referendum. Every entity that paid the assessment in 2009 will receive a ballot. Therefore, many growers will likely receive more than one ballot. They are not duplications. Each separate growing entity is entitled to cast a vote. If you have questions regarding the number of ballots you receive, please contact CDFA –Marketing Branch at (916) 341-6005.	At least 40 percent of eligible entities must cast ballots for the referendum to be valid. Passage of the referendum requires either: 1. Of those who vote, 65 percent vote “yes,” and the “yes” voters must have paid the majority of the assessment that was paid by those who voted; or, 2. Of those who vote, a majority vote “yes,” and the “yes” voters must have paid 65 percent or more of the assessment that was paid by those who voted.