Senate committee backs increase in Idaho Bean Commission assessment to shore up research and marketing

The Idaho Senate Agriculture Affairs Committee voted to send Senate Bill 10 54 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation after the Idaho Bean Commission described falling receipts, rising costs and a need for continued research and market promotion.

The bill, presented by Andy Wolf Wybie, executive director of the Idaho Bean Commission, would raise the commission's per-hundredweight assessment from its current level to a 16¢ base split equally between growers and dealers and would authorize the commission, by majority board vote, to increase the assessment up to 24¢ per hundredweight in the future.

The commission is funded by an industry checkoff and does not receive general fund money. "We do not receive any general fund moneys," Wybie told the committee, adding the commission had not requested an increase since 1992. She said inflation and a recent production-driven drop in assessment receipts have reduced the commission's reserves and limited its…