Proposed change to oilseed refund process draws opposition from checkoff organizations

Representative Ty Dressler (District 36) introduced House Bill 15‑09 to simplify the refund process producers use to reclaim voluntary oilseed checkoff assessments. Dressler told the House Agriculture Committee the bill would allow producers up to one year to request and submit a refund application, require the North Dakota Oilseed Council to post a refund form on its website, and require the council to issue refunds within 30 days of receiving a completed request.

"This is a simple straightforward bill, simplifying a process and adding transparency for all parties involved," Dressler said, noting his intent was not to harm commodity councils but to reduce producer paperwork and timing burdens.

Several producers and farm advocates testified in support, saying harvest schedules and year‑round marketing make current deadlines burdensome. Farmer Jody Hoff said an online form and longer filing window would be helpful during busy seasons. Representative Dressler and witnesses said the current process requires a producer to request a refund application in 60 days and then submit the application and documentation within 90 days of assessment.

Representatives of the North Dakota Oilseed Council and several commodity groups opposed the bill. John Wirt, chairman of the North Dakota Oilseed Council, said the council relies on predictable, quarterly revenues to budget research, promotion and advocacy contracts. He warned that lengthening the refund window to a year "introduces significant uncertainty and complicates financial planning" and could force councils to set aside larger reserves or reduce program funding. Wirt said the council’s current refund rate is small (about 3.6–3.7% as cited in testimony).

Northern Canola Growers Association executive director Barry Coleman and other commodity representatives told the committee they had not seen producer complaints about the existing refund timeline and cautioned against diverging from uniform refund language adopted in past legislative work. Annika Plummer of the North Dakota Ag Coalition said the uniform 60/90‑day process was adopted after extensive stakeholder work and that changing it could affect budgeting across multiple checkoff organizations.

Committee members asked whether the council could post a downloadable form online while keeping current deadlines, and whether a shorter extension (for example, 120 days) could balance producer convenience and council budgeting. John Wirt said posting a downloadable form could be efficient, but he and other witnesses expressed concern that differing deadlines across commodity checkoffs would create confusion for producers who raise multiple crops.

No committee vote is recorded in the transcript. The hearing record shows a split between producers seeking simpler, more flexible timing and councils emphasizing predictable revenue and existing low refund rates.