BILL ANALYSIS
AB 977
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Date of Hearing: April 25, 2007
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
Nicole Parra, Chair
AB 977 (Ma) - As Introduced: February 22, 2007
SUBJECT : Agriculture: market orders and commissions.
SUMMARY : Requires the California Research Bureau (CRB), part of
the California State Library, to prepare a study of the voting
structures of the agricultural commissions and marketing orders
assessment processes.
EXISTING LAW provides authority under the 1937 Marketing Act for
the Secretary (Secretary) of the California Department of Food
and Agriculture (CDFA) to create marketing orders with specifies
powers, voting and assessment requirements, and definitions
(Food and Agricultural Code (FAC) 58601 et. seq.). Councils
and Commissions are statutorily authorized for specific
commodities with various powers, authorities, assessment levels,
and voting structures (FAC 64001 et. seq.).
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed "fiscal" by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : Marketing orders, councils and commissions are all
subject to a vote by those that are to be assessed and must be
reauthorization every five years by a vote or public hearing.
The vote requirements are statutorily stated for all three
structures. The assessment levels are also statutorily stated
for councils and commissions and marketing orders must have a
maximum level of assessment that is included in the petition to
the Secretary of CDFA and reflected in the referendum
information distributed to the voters.
The most recent extension referendum for the Pistachio
Commission at the end of 2006 did not meet the required vote
levels to be extended. CDFA has began an audit of the
commissions with the first one being on the California Tomato
Commission (CTC), which caused the Secretary to put a cease and
desist order on the commission's activities. The CTC is
reviewing the audit and findings to determine if they will
challenge the audit and the order.
As written, AB 977 will require two reports, one on the voting
AB 977
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structures of agricultural commodity commissions, and a second
on the assessment processes for marketing orders. All of this
information is available within the statutes or upon the request
of CDFA.
The committee may wish to consider redirecting the study by CRB
to develop a summary of literature on the effectiveness of the
commodity commissions and provide a date for the report to be
completed. Since this is a one time activity and is dealing
with the Legislature rather than CDFA, it may be better policy
to place this request in as a non-codify section.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Roll International Corporation
Opposition
None received.
Analysis Prepared by : Jim Collin / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084