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Department of Agriculture seeks new plant-protection and mitigation environmental FTEs; House omitted both
Summary
Commissioner Doug Goren and staff described two requested full-time positions — a plant protection inspector and an environmental mitigation specialist — that the House did not include in its budget; committee members heard functions and operational impacts if the positions are not funded.
The Senate Appropriations — Government Operations Division reviewed two Department of Agriculture FTE requests during its March 6 hearing on House Bill 1009.
Commissioner Doug Goren said the department requested one plant protection position (requested by the previous administration) and one environmental mitigation position tied to the state’s mitigation work. Staff noted the House did not include funding for either position in its version of the bill.
Goren described the plant protection position as responsible for export phytosanitary certificates, apiary inspections, hemp/CBD inspection work and additional survey responsibilities such as Emerald Ash Borer monitoring. “Because of the increased export activity … we waited till now to ask for it because they do a lot of the export certificates of, you know, phytosanitary inspections,” he said.
He said the environmental mitigation FTE would focus on mitigation program implementation — assessing impacts, managing easements the state holds for mitigation projects, and overseeing associated finance and technical tasks. "We currently have no one doing this full time," Goren said, explaining current staff “fill in” and that mitigation workload is expected to increase.
Senators questioned whether the positions could be deferred and noted some House members told the department to raise the staffing requests in the Senate. Committee members flagged potential program risks if the department remains understaffed for export certification and mitigation oversight.
Ending: The committee did not approve the positions during the hearing and noted the items for follow-up as the Senate prepares its budget recommendations.
