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Committee divided over bean commission assessment; substitute motion holds increase in committee
Summary
Senate Bill 1054, which would raise the Idaho Bean Commission assessment from 12¢ per hundredweight toward a proposed 16¢ rate (with statutory cap up to 24¢), prompted supportive testimony from industry but drew procedural objections and a substitute motion to hold the bill in committee passed.
Representative John Shirts introduced Senate Bill 1054 on behalf of the Idaho Bean Commission, saying the measure updates a long-dormant assessment that was last changed decades ago. "This raises the current bean commission rate from 12¢ a hundred weight to 16¢ and up to potentially 24¢," Shirts said. He and supporters noted the last increase dated to the early 1990s and said the assessment does not use general fund money. "It doesn't even keep up for the inflationary pressures," Shirts said.
The commission's executive director, Andy Wolf Wybie, told the committee the board typically meets quarterly and that compensation for commission members would come from the commission's assessment funds, not general fund dollars. "We receive absolutely 0 general fund monies," he said. Testimony from the industry included growers and dealers: Monte Hamilton, executive board chair for the Bean Commission, said dealers agreed to support half the proposed increase while growers would not see an increase this time. Several industry representatives spoke to research and marketing uses for the assessment, naming studies at the Parma Extension Center on disease threats the funds help address.
Representative Levitt and other members questioned the bill's language, which uses the phrase "levied and imposed a tax" in its current statutory form. Supporters and the sponsor called that language an historical phrasing and said the assessment is an industry-funded fee rather than a general tax. Representative Levitt offered a substitute motion to hold the bill in committee to change the language; the chair ruled the first substitute motion was out of order, but a later motion to hold in committee was moved and voted on. The committee approved the substitute motion to hold Senate Bill 1054 in committee by voice vote; the transcript records both "Aye" and "Nay" calls and that representatives requested to be recorded, but it does not show a roll-call tally in the transcript excerpt.
Sponsors and industry witnesses said the assessment funds promotion, marketing and research that many small growers could not accomplish individually. Opponents or skeptics framed the measure as an additional fee. The committee did not adopt the bill at this hearing and returned it to committee for further work.
