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Panel advances bill to raise pesticide-license fee to fund abandoned-chemical collections
Summary
HB 1471 would let the state plant board set an annual pesticide-license fee up to $100 (current $50) and keep the collection fund within the Department of Agriculture; the department said an advisory board will recommend the fee and the department will administer collections.
Representative David Hillman (District 13) presented House Bill 1471 to continue the state’s abandoned-pesticide collection program and raise the pesticide-company license fee from $50 to a maximum of $100 (the increase would be set by rule and subject to Department of Agriculture processes).
Scott Bray, director of the Plant Industries Division at the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, told the committee the program would be advised by a six-member abandoned-pesticide advisory board that recommends an annual fee to the state plant board. The plant board would establish the fee by rule, the Department would collect the fee through its pesticide-registration program, and the fund would be held within the Department of Agriculture.
Hillman said the fee is paid by pesticide companies and that the increase responds to significantly higher disposal costs since the program began around 2005. After questions about which entity sets the fee and where the money is held, the committee took a motion to pass HB 1471 and approved it by voice vote.
