BILL NUMBER: AB 629	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 6, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 9, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 26, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Perea

                        FEBRUARY 24, 2015

   An act to amend Sections 62070, 62071, and 62075 of the Food and
Agricultural Code, relating to market milk.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 629, as amended, Perea. Market milk: stabilization and
marketing plans: minimum prices.
   Existing law authorizes the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to
formulate stabilization and marketing plans that establish the prices
to be paid by milk handlers for specified classes of market milk.
Existing law provides that a stabilization and marketing plan may
provide for, among other things, maximum charges for plant processing
and transportation services, and minimum charges for the various
services performed by a nonprofit cooperative association regarding
class 1 market milk. Existing law authorizes the secretary to
establish separate prices for various components of market milk other
than class 1 market milk.
   This bill would require the secretary to ensure that producers and
handlers receive notice of the monthly prices for the various
components of market milk, as specified. The bill would also make
nonsubstantive changes to the provisions regarding maximum and
minimum charges for services, as specified above.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 62070 of the Food and Agricultural Code is
amended to read:
   62070.  Each stabilization and marketing plan may further provide
for maximum charges for plant processing and transportation service
on the market milk or market milk components that are transported to
the area where sold. The stabilization and marketing plan may
enumerate the applicable maximum charges, and may establish
individual charges for each function enumerated. In establishing any
maximum charges for transportation services, the secretary shall base
the maximum charges upon the rates that are charged for actual or
reasonably similar services by highway carriers, as the term "highway
carriers" is defined in Section 737.3 of the Public Utilities Code.
  SEC. 2.  Section 62071 of the Food and Agricultural Code is amended
to read:
   62071.  Each stabilization and marketing plan may provide for
minimum charges for the various services performed or rendered by a
nonprofit cooperative association with respect to class 1 market milk
sold or delivered to another handler. Handler services include
component testing for payment purposes, quality control, producer
payroll, and weighing and sampling of bulk market milk. Each
stabilization and marketing plan may also include, but not be limited
to, minimum charges for the handling of intermittent or irregular
deliveries of market milk and plant standby services. The
stabilization and marketing plan may enumerate applicable minimum
charges and establish individual charges for each service enumerated
or, in the alternative, the secretary may establish one or more
minimum charges covering one or more of the separate handler
services.
  SEC. 3.  Section 62075 of the Food and Agricultural Code is amended
to read:
   62075.  (a) The secretary shall establish the minimum prices to be
paid by handlers to producers for class 1 usage of market milk upon
a milk fat, solids-not-fat or the subcomponents thereof, and fluid
carrier basis. In establishing the minimum prices for classes of
market milk other than class 1, separate prices may be established
for any one or more of the following:
   (1) The milk fat contained in the milk.
   (2) The solids-not-fat or subcomponents thereof contained in the
milk.
   (3) The fluid contained in the milk.
   (4) Any combination of the milk fat, the solids-not-fat or
subcomponents thereof, or the fluid contained in the milk.
   (b) The secretary shall ensure that producers and handlers receive
notice in writing,  and  by posting on the
department's Internet Web  site   site,  or
by other means deemed appropriate by the secretary, of the monthly
price of each component specified in subdivision (a).