Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Agriculture Fees topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate committee amends and advances bill to tie agriculture fee caps to CPI
Summary
The Senate Finance Committee adopted an amendment to Senate Bill 143 to index statutory caps on certain agriculture fees to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers and then advanced the bill out of committee by roll call.
Senate Finance on Wednesday amended and advanced Senate Bill 143, which would let statutory caps on specific agriculture-related fees increase automatically with inflation.
Sponsor testimony said the bill does not create automatic fee increases but instead raises the ceiling on certain fees and ties those caps to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers published by the U.S. Department of Labor. The sponsor told the committee the changes would allow fee caps “to rise with inflation” and noted those fees are administered through New Mexico State University’s Board of Regents.
Committee members asked which index would be used; sponsors and cosponsors confirmed the CPI-U by the U.S. Department of Labor. After brief discussion, the committee adopted the amendment and returned to the bill. The chair called a roll; Senators Campos, Gonzales, Lanier, Padilla, Trujillo, Woods, Shandoh and Munoz voted yes. Several senators were recorded as excused. The chair stated the bill passed the committee.
The amendment adopted was described in committee as a caps-indexing provision rather than an automatic rate-setting mechanism. The bill now moves from the Senate Finance Committee with the indexing amendment attached.
