HOUSE BILL REPORT

                 SSB 6098

                       As Passed House

                        March 2, 1994

 

Title:  An act relating to the dairy inspection program.

 

Brief Description:  Eliminating the expiration of the dairy inspection program.

 

Sponsors:  Senate Committee on Agriculture (originally sponsored by Senators M. Rasmussen, Newhouse, Snyder and Quigley; by request of Department of Agriculture).

 

Brief History:

  Reported by House Committee on:

Agriculture & Rural Development, February 23, 1994, DP.

Passed House, March 2, 1994, 96-0.

 

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

 

Majority Report:  Do pass.  Signed by 9 members:  Representatives Rayburn, Chair; Kremen, Vice Chair; Chandler, Ranking Minority Member; Schoesler, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Chappell; Grant; Karahalios; McMorris and Roland.

 

Staff:  Kenneth Hirst (786-7105).

 

Background:  The Department of Agriculture administers the state's milk inspection program.  In 1992 a law was enacted providing for an assessment of fifty-four one-hundredths of one cent per hundredweight on all milk processed within the state.  The additional revenue was to supplement funding from the state general fund for a dairy inspection program.  The assessment is collected from the operator of the first milk plant receiving the milk for processing.  The assessment is scheduled to expire June 30, 1994.

 

The 1992 law also created an advisory committee to provide recommendations to the Department of Agriculture regarding the dairy inspection program.

 

Summary of Bill:  The June 30, 1994, termination date of the assessment on processed milk is postponed one year.  The dairy inspection program advisory committee is continued.

 

Fiscal Note:  Available.

 

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed. 

 

Testimony For:  The assessment provides an important source of revenue for the inspection program.  Additional study is needed before the fee is made permanent.

 

Testimony Against:  None.

 

Witnesses:  In Favor:  Senator M. Rasmussen, prime sponsor; John Daly and Verne Hedlund, Department of Agriculture; and Dan Coyne, Washington State Dairy Federation and Darigold.