BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE FOOD and AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE
Senator Dean Florez, Chairman
BILL NO: AB 2270 HEARING: 6/15/10
AUTHOR: Assembly Agriculture Committee FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 2/18/10 CONSULTANT: John Chandler
Horses: show, competition, and sale events: fees: registration.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
In 1971, the California horse industry sponsored legislation to
deter the misuse of drugs and medications in show and sale
horses. The program has evolved over the years into today's
Equine Medication Monitoring Program (EMMP) implemented by the
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Each
public horse show, sale, and competition is required to be
registered by the event manager with CDFA at least 30 days prior
to the occurrence of any horse event or face civil penalties
ranging from $100 to $2,500.
AB 1810 (Galgiani), Chapter 87, Statutes of 2008, revised the
requirement for the EMMP Advisory Committee to meet once per
year; provided that the chairperson may call for additional
meetings as determined to be necessary; clarified that the
committee may elect a chairperson at the pleasure of the
committee; and specified a "horse event manager" to mean an
individual or entity that is financially responsible for the
event.
AB 945 (Assembly Agriculture Committee,) Chapter 262, Statutes
of 2009, deleted alternative certificate options for an
individual horseshow, competition, or sale, thereby having all
designated shows, competitions, and sales under CDFA.
PROPOSED LAW
AB 2270 would do the following:
Require the event manager to complete an assessment
report for the registered event.
Require the event manager to keep event records for up
to two years after the completion of the event and make
those records available upon request of CDFA for inspection
and duplication to verify appropriate collection of fees.
Specify that registered events held over multiple
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consecutive days, with a different judge for each day, and
managed by the same event manager are only assessed a
single event fee.
Authorize CDFA to suspend an event manager from hosting
or managing a public horse show or competition for at least
90 days but not more than one year in addition to a civil
penalty, if after notice and opportunity for a hearing the
event manager failed to register a public horse show,
competition, or sale with CDFA.
Specify that if a suspended manager hosts or manages a
horse show, competition, or sale they may be subject to
further civil penalties ranging from $100 to $2,500 per
violation.
COMMENTS
1.Supporters state that AB 2270 would improve CDFA's ability to
enforce regulations on horse events. AB 2270 would clear up
confusion in the industry regarding the appropriate collection
of assessment fees for multi-day horse events by specifying a
single assessment for multi-day events. Supporters specify
that there is no method for verification of assessment fee
collection for registered equine events. AB 2270's
requirement to maintain event records would enable CDFA to
ensure that fees are collected. Further, AB 2270 would
address lost revenues from event managers who fail to register
their horse events by enabling CDFA to suspend them for up to
a year.
PRIOR ACTIONS
Assembly Floor 74-0
Assembly Appropriations15-0
Assembly Agriculture 8-0
SUPPORT
California Horse Council
OPPOSITION
None received
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