BILL REQ. #:  H-2205.1 

Read first time 03/03/2005.   Referred to Committee on Appropriations.

     AN ACT Relating to the fruit and vegetable inspection account; amending RCW 15.17.240; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature intends to phase out the department of agriculture's practice of using funds from the fruit and vegetable inspection account for the payment of the department's general and overhead expenses. The legislature intends that the department's general and overhead expenses are paid from the state's general fund.

Sec. 2   RCW 15.17.240 and 2002 c 322 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The fruit and vegetable inspection account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. All fees collected under this chapter must be deposited into the account. Except as specifically authorized by this subsection, the director may authorize expenditures from the account solely for the implementation and enforcement of ((this chapter and any other expenditures authorized by statute or session law and applying specifically to the account)) the fruit and vegetable program. For each fiscal year in the 2005-2007 biennium, the director may authorize the use of up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars from the account for payment of general and administrative expenses of the department, but only if the use of the funds provides some benefit to the fruit and vegetable inspection program. For each fiscal year in the 2007-2009 biennium, the director may authorize the use of up to one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars from the account for payment of general and administrative expenses of the department, but only if the use of the funds provides some benefit to the fruit and vegetable inspection program. The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but an appropriation is not required for expenditures.
     The director shall establish and maintain an account within the fruit and vegetable inspection account for each district established under RCW 15.17.230.
     (2) By August 1, 2004, and by August 1st of each even-numbered year thereafter, the director shall review the balance of each of the district accounts in the fruit and vegetable inspection account at the end of the previous fiscal year. If the balance in the district account exceeds the sum of the following: An amount equal to the total expenditures of the district served by that account for the last six months of that previous fiscal year; any budgeted capital expenditures from the account for the current fiscal year; and six hundred thousand dollars, the director shall temporarily and equally, on a percentage basis, reduce each of the fees accruing to the district account until such time that the district account has a balance equal to the amount of the total expenditures from the account for the last seven months of the previous fiscal year, at which time the fees shall be returned to the amounts before the temporary reduction. In making the reductions, the director shall attempt to reduce fees for a twelve-month period so as to apply the reductions to as many of the persons who annually pay fees for services provided by the district. The temporary fee reductions shall be initially provided through the adoption of emergency rules. The emergency and subsequent rules temporarily reducing the fees are exempt from the requirements of RCW 34.05.310 and chapter 19.85 RCW. These fees shall be reinstated through the expiration of the rules temporarily reducing them and the authority to reinstate them is hereby granted.