Senate committee backs sending bean commission fee increase to Senate floor

The Idaho Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee voted to send Senate Bill 1054 to the Senate floor with a do-pass recommendation after testimony that the Idaho Bean Commission needs more revenue to fund research, education and market development.

Andy Wolf Wybie, executive director of the Idaho Bean Commission, told the committee the commission “does not receive any general fund moneys” and has not asked for an assessment increase since 1992. Wybie said the commission’s board voted in June 2023 to raise the dealer-side assessment by 4 cents and is requesting statutory authority to raise the total assessment up to 24 cents per hundredweight with a majority board vote; the request before the committee would raise the base assessment to 16 cents per hundredweight split equally between growers and dealers, a change members described in committee discussion as moving “from 12¢ to a base of 16.”

The nut graf: supporters told the committee the commission’s work — disease testing, seed certification rules, research trials and…