Subcommittee reviews MDARD budget; bovine tuberculosis, food safety and MEEP funding highlighted

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development and Natural Resources convened and heard a presentation from William Hamilton, a House Fiscal Agency analyst, on the current-year budget for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). Hamilton said the MDARD gross appropriation in the bill is $156,900,000 and that the budget is supported primarily by state general fund, state restricted funds and federal revenue.

Hamilton told members the department’s main duties in the budget include food safety and quality assurance, milk safety and quality assurance, animal industry disease prevention and response, environmental stewardship programs and agricultural development. "This is my first time chairing MDARD…I'm honored to chair this committee," said Chair Borden at the start of the session, noting the subcommittee’s focus on natural resources and farmers.

Hamilton said roughly 57% of MDARD’s budget in the presentation is supported by general fund sources (listed in the presentation as $89,100,000), about 30% by state-restricted sources ($47,200,000 in the slides) and the remainder by federal revenue (the presentation lists $20,400,000). He described four internal bureaus in the department: Food Safety and Animal Health; Environment and Sustainability; Agriculture Development; and…