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Idaho Bean Commission seeks to increase commodity assessment; committee votes to print RS31817
Summary
The Idaho Bean Commission asked the Senate Agriculture Committee to print RS31817, a request to raise the commission's check‑off assessment from 12¢ per hundredweight toward 16¢ (with possible future authorization to 24¢). The committee voted to print the request.
The Idaho Bean Commission’s executive director told the Senate Agriculture Committee the commission seeks statutory authority to increase its check‑off assessment to fund research, trade promotion and disease and insect work.
Andy Wolf Wybie, executive director of the Idaho Bean Commission, said the commission has not requested an assessment increase since 1992 and that inflation and recent needs (including renewed entomology research and seed-disease testing for export markets) have eroded the commission’s purchasing power. He told the committee the current assessment is 12¢ per hundredweight, split 8¢ from growers and 4¢ from bean dealers/warehouses. The commission’s board voted unanimously to raise the assessment by 4¢ so both grower and dealer shares would be 8¢ (bringing the total to 16¢) and requested authorization to increase to 24¢ in the future if needed, again split evenly.
Wybie described past trade outreach and research spending and said entomology research resumed in 2024 after University of Idaho hiring created capacity at the Parma Research and Extension Center. He also cited work to detect a husk-associated pathogen (referred to in testimony) affecting EU seed acceptance and said the commission has spent the last 18 months informing industry members about the proposed change.
Senator Blaylock moved to print RS31817; Senator Van Orden seconded. The committee voice‑voted to print the RS. No fiscal note or roll‑call vote detail was provided in the transcript.
The committee’s printing of the RS advances the commission’s request into the bill-drafting process; any statutory change would require subsequent bill introduction and passage.
