BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 655
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
655 (Quirk)
As Amended April 6, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+----------------------+----------------------|
|Agriculture |10-0 |Perea, Gallagher, | |
| | |Cooper, Dahle, Dodd, | |
| | |Eggman, Grove, Irwin, | |
| | |Quirk, Salas | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+----------------------+----------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bloom, Bonta, | |
| | |Calderon, Chang, | |
| | |Daly, Eggman, | |
| | |Gallagher, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, | |
| | |Jones, Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Wagner, Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Increases a registration fee for transporters of
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inedible kitchen grease (IKG), and makes technical non-substantive
changes. Specifically, this bill:
1)Places existing non-codified legislative findings and
declarations into the statute.
2)Increases the per vehicle registration fee for transporters of
IKG from $300 up to $350 per year, while keeping the cap on
total fees per registered transporter of kitchen grease at
$3,000 per year.
3)Makes technical non-substantive changes.
EXISTING LAW regulates rendering, which is defined as the
recycling, processing, and conversion of, among other things,
inedible kitchen grease; requires transporters of IKG to be
registered and to pay a specified registration fee; permits the
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to charge an
additional fee not to exceed $300 per year per vehicle that is
operated to transport kitchen grease for purposes of administering
the provisions regulating these transporters.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill will have annual General Fund revenue gains
of approximately $30,000 to CDFA from the fee increase, offset by
anticipated increased costs for enforcement activities. .
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COMMENTS: According to the author, the IKG program needs
additional funds for enforcement purposes. The hauling of IKG
takes little capital investment to enter into, making it an easy
potential operation for fly by night operators. The theft of IKG
or the unlawful dumping of IKG or interceptor grease occurs
depending on the price of the product - the higher the price the
more theft and the lower the price the more dumping. The proper
disposal of some of these products may require the operator to
incur the cost of tipping fees, so when product prices are low,
some operators improperly dispose of the product in various
illicit methods, such as, dumping into sewer lines, open fields,
water bodies or even into other commercial food holding tanks,
passing the cost onto the public or other operators.
This increase in the registration fee is intended to assist CDFA
in increasing their enforcement actions to stop the theft or
illegal disposal of these products. This has been an ongoing
problem that the Legislature, with the industry's support and
assistance, has tried to correct through increased fines and
larger industry fees to pay for enforcement. Under this CDFA
program, some registration renewals have been denied due to the
improper pass actions by the registrant.
Lack of sufficient and effective enforcement has been a continuing
issue for preventing this illegal activity. By increasing the
registration fee, the industry and CDFA hope to more effectively
provide enforcement on IKG transporters by providing more
inspections of them and their records.
Analysis Prepared by:
Jim Collin / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084 FN: 0000196
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