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Minutes for HB2135 - Committee on Agriculture
Short Title
Relating to fees for dairy businesses and the processing of paper documents by the Kansas secretary of agriculture.
Minutes Content for Mon, Feb 6, 2017
Chair Hoffman opened the hearing on HB2135 at 4:10pm.
Kyle Hamilton, Assistant Revisor, Office of The Revisor of Statutes, provided an overview of HB2135 and the statutes that it affects. (Attachment 4) There is a Fiscal Note for HB2135.
Chad Bontrager, Deputy Secretary, Kansas Department of Agriculture, appeared before the Committee in support of HB2135. This bill extends the sunset on fees related to dairy and feed safety programs to 2028 and establishes an agency-wide paper processing fee. This processing fee is cap at $50 and would only apply to documents in which a paperless option is offered by the department. (Attachment 5)
Tucker A. Stewart, Associate Counsel, Kansas Livestock Association, appeared before the Committee in opposition of HB2135. The Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) opposes the sunset extension of 10 years, but would agree to the routine 5 year extension. We feel that the 10 year extension does not afford adequate oversight by the legislature. KLA also believes that an exemption for manufacturing plants fee located on a dairy is unfair. KLA would be supportive of the exemption if the plant only processes less than 6 million pounds of milk per year. This would allow the small niche market dairies to continue without losing their current exemption. (Attachment 6)
Mr. Bontrager and Mr. Stewart answered questions from the committee.
There were no neutrals of HB2135.
The hearing on HB2135 was closed at 4:38pm.
