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Eight Marin projects will share $23.75 million in state earmarks in the final state budget.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 113, a budget trailer bill containing the earmarks, on Sept. 19.

The earmarks that make the final budget are hammered out behind closed doors with the governor, the Senate president pro tempore and the Assembly speaker.

In an email, County Executive Derek Johnson expressed his gratitude to the county’s representatives in the Legislature, and added, “We also deeply appreciate everything that Governor Newsom has done to help support the community where he and his family have a unique, personal connection.”

Newsom and his family live in a six-bedroom home in Kentfield, which they purchased for $9.1 million in 2024. He is near the end of his second term, the limit for a governor.

The Agricultural Institute of Marin was awarded $13.25 million for a long-term farmers market and “food innovation hub” at the Marin County Civic Center.

“It’s the culmination of many years of hard work and dedication to fund our permanent farmers market,” said Andy Naja-Riese, the chief executive officer.

The Agricultural Institute of Marin has sought federal and state funding for the project for years. Legislators allocated $2 million in the regular state budget for the effort in 2019.

In previous years, Naja-Riese said the organization took the typical path to seek state earmarks by appealing to the county’s representatives in Sacramento: Assemblymember Damon Connolly and State Senator Mike McGuire.

“This time we submitted our appeal through the governor’s office,” Naja-Riese said. “They worked with the Legislature to finalize the deal as part of the budget agreement.”

“The first partner of California, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, has also been a really strong ambassador for the work that we do to support local food,” Naja-Riese said. “She has really been a strong leader in the farm-to-school movement within California.”

The other seven Marin earmarks included $4 million to help fund a capital project at Redwood High School, where Newsom was a student; $2 million to help build affordable housing for people displaced from substandard housing in West Marin; $1.8 million to support restoration efforts at the Mount Tamalpais Cemetery in San Rafael; $1 million to extend the Marin-Sonoma bikeshare pilot program; $800,000 to help the Stinson Beach Fire Protection District build a new fire station; $500,000 to support the work of West Marin Community Services; and $350,000 to support renovations at Marin City Community Services District facilities.

Naja-Riese said the generous award from the state will allow the Agricultural Institute of Marin to build its entire project all at once instead of in two phases. The nonprofit needs just $800,000 more to reach the $24 million it needs, and Naja-Riese hopes to close that gap through private philanthropy.

The organization plans to lease a 3.7-acre parcel at the Marin County Civic Center campus and install permeable pavers for the farmers markets. The space will include restrooms, seating, drinking water and tensile canopies to provide shelter from sun, rain and wind.

“The food innovation hub will consist of three Frank Lloyd Wright-style Usonian buildings that will focus on food education, culinary education, gardening and farm education,” Naja-Riese said. “It’ll be a place where the community can gather, connect with farmers, and also help to support the next generation of farmers.”

Courtney Goode, superintendent of the Tamalpais Union High School District, said the $4 million allocated to the Redwood High School Foundation “will be used to refurbish the school’s athletic weight room which was an identified, prioritized and unfunded need in our district’s facilities master plan.”

“This generous support of Redwood High will support generations of students and student-athletes for decades to come and we are deeply appreciative,” Goode said.

The $2 million earmark to the Bolinas Community Land Trust is for 25 affordable dwellings on a section of the Tacherra ranch, where residents had substandard housing. The trust purchased a 20-acre section of the ranch and moved the residents into leased recreational vehicles on the land in 2024.

“All of the residents who were displaced from the former Tacherra ranch have been sheltered at Bo-Linda Vista since 2024,” said Annie O’Connor, co-director of philanthropy. “The residents named it Bo-Linda Vista.”

She said the nonprofit has secured, or identified sources for, about half of the $24 million estimated project cost. It has purchased all 66 acres of the Tacherra ranch and plans to build the new housing where the former substandard housing, which was demolished, used to be.

Not all counties in the state were as fortunate as Marin, the third wealthiest county in California with a median income that exceeds $142,000. Trinity, Siskiyou and Modoc counties, all of which have median incomes below $55,000, received no earmarks.