BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1976
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Date of Hearing: April 6, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1976 (Irwin) - As Introduced February 16, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill changes the size and composition of the California
Avocado Commission (CAC), and revises the information avocado
producers provide to the California Department of Food and
Agriculture (CDFA). In summary, the bill:
AB 1976
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1)Changes the number of avocado handlers on the Board from four
to two and the number of alternate handler members on the
Board from two to one.
2)Changes the number of Board members required for a quorum or
to recommend a suspension of the CAC. The number of Board
members needed is reduced from eleven to nine if there are
three districts, ten to nine if there are four districts, and
eleven to ten if there are five districts.
3)Requires avocado handlers to include the grove location of
each CAC producer instead of the district number in
information sent to CDFA.
4)Requires that all requested information must now be sent to
CDFA within 60 days of the receipt of a written request
instead of 90 days.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Negligible fiscal impact.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose and Background: AB 1976 is intended to modernize the
CAC so that it better reflects industry trends. The CAC was
created in 1977 to benefit California and the avocado industry
by addressing advertising, promotion, research, quality and
maturity standards, crop statistics, and public education.
Since the creation of CAC, the avocado industry has evolved,
AB 1976
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and the number of avocado handlers has decreased. This has
made it more difficult for the CAC Board to find four handlers
to serve on a regular basis. On October 15, 2015, the CAC
Board passed a motion to reduce the number of handler seats to
two and alternate handler seats to one to maintain a
proportional ratio of producers and handlers. AB 1976 would
codify this motion by the Board.
Analysis Prepared by:Luke Reidenbach / APPR. / (916)
319-2081