BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE FOOD and AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE
Senator Dean Florez, Chairman
BILL NO: AB 1255 HEARING: 7/7/09
AUTHOR: T. Berryhill FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 2/27/09 CONSULTANT: John Chandler
Agricultural seed: county seed enforcement subventions.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
The California Seed Law (CSL) was created in 1967 to ensure
product accuracy for seeds and seed labeling. In 1973, the Seed
Advisory Board was created and charged with enforcing standards
in the seed industry, with the industry covering the costs of
the program. These standards provide consumer protection by
providing germination and purity requirements and labeling
standards for each package.
To insure the integrity and quality of both the seeds and their
labels, the legislature empowered the county agricultural
commissioners with enforcing many of the provisions of the CSL.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) pays
counties an annual subvention of $120,000 for costs incurred in
the enforcement of the CSL. Counties choosing to participate in
this program receive subvention funds based on units of
enforcement activity generated by the registered seed labeler
operations and enforcement performance as determined by the
Secretary of CDFA. At the discretion of CDFA, counties with no
registered seed labelers may receive $100. The annual assessment
cannot exceed $0.40 per $100 of sales.
This subvention program providing funding to counties for CSL
enforcement will sunset on January 1, 2010. CDFA's
administrative reimbursement and annual subvention to counties
for costs incurred in the enforcement will sunset on July 1,
2009.
AB 856 (Parra) Chapter 425, Statutes of 2008, allowed the
department to not distribute to counties that do not have
registered seed labelers the required minimum $100 seed
subvention funds. It also extended the sunset from July 1,
2009, to January 1, 2010.
PROPOSED LAW
AB 1255 will extend the sunset for county subvention funds for
seed law enforcement from 2010 to 2015.
AB 1255 - Page 2
COMMENTS
1.Proponents of AB 1255 state seed subvention funds provide
counties with a source of revenue from the seed industry to
cover a portion of their costs for enforcing the California
Seed Law. Seed subvention funds also provide county
agricultural commissioners with the ability to quickly respond
to seed inspection needs and keep current with testing and
sampling procedures.
2.AB 1255 will extend the sunset for the subvention program
apportionment to counties. However, there are two other
sections of code dealing with seed subvention funds that will
sunset on July 1, 2009. Those sections deal with the costs of
administering the chapter which includes a requirement to pay
in arrears $120,000 to counties for enforcement and subvention
cooperative agreement which outlines county agriculture and
CDFA interaction on subvention funds. The committee may wish
to consider if these other sections due to sunset should be
included in this sunset extension bill.
PRIOR ACTIONS
Assembly Floor 76-0
Assembly Appropriations16-0
Assembly Agriculture 8-0
SUPPORT
California Agricultural Commissioners & Sealers Association
California Seed Association
Regional Council of Rural Counties
OPPOSITION
None received