The state shortchanging California counties that have been participating for decades in an agricultural land conservation program is riling folks in the Central Valley, the nation’s food basket.

“Talk is cheap. And so, it seems, are California’s governor and Legislature,” wrote John Hardisty in a Bakersfield Californian opinion article published June 24, 2010. Hardisty headed the Bakersfield  Development Services Department until his retirement in 2004. He is now a planning consultant.

“Checks were sent this month to counties, including Kern, to reimburse local governments for the cost of participating in a long-time, highly successful agricultural land preservation program,” he wrote.

“Instead of the $4.7 million Kern County should be receiving under a long-established state Williamson Act formula, the county will be receiving only $133.22. … for its efforts to preserve about 1.6 million acres of agricultural land. Only Fresno County is getting more – a whopping $150.45. … Some counties, such as Orange County, received checks for only a penny,” wrote Hardisty, who as the deputy planning director of California’s rural Kings County in the 1970s administered the Williamson Act .

“This whole fiasco is a sorry result of state government’s fiscal meltdown and its years-long pattern of letting its ‘pain’ roll down to local governments. Governors and legislators pass laws and spend money in Sacramento, then roll the fiscal consequences downhill to cities and counties,” Hardisty wrote.

Last year, the Williamson Act was a casualty of state budget cutting. But rather than kill the program altogether, $1,000 was left in the budget to reimburse local governments for the cost of the program. The state checks that have gone out this month reflect the dividing up of that $1,000.

This contrasts to the $38 million that should have been distributed to help preserve 16.5 million acres of farmland and open space in California.

The Williamson Act, which was authored in 1965 by Kern County Assemblyman John Williamson, provides an economic incentive for farmers to keep farming their land, rather than selling it for residential or commercial development. Owners enter into 10- or 20-year contracts in exchange for a discount on their property tax. Rather than being taxed at the “market rate” – based on the land sprouting houses, rather than crops – it is charged a rate based on the less “valuable” agricultural use.

The state agreed to partially reimburse participating counties for the loss of property tax that resulted from this discount. And it is that agreement that the state reneged on last year.

The Williamson Act is one of California’s most successful agricultural land and open space conservation strategies. It has enabled farmers to keep farming, kept communities from sprawling into prime agricultural land, and helped California maintain its position as the nation’s number one agricultural state – all stated goals of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s and legislators’ attempts to curb “global warming.”