Brief (1)
SB 254 would amend the portion of the statutes which enacted the Agricultural and Speciality Chemical Remediation Act. The bill would modify the assessments made by the legislation to allow pesticide dealers who have annual sales of less than $2,500 to pay an assessment of $5. Any pesticide dealer with annual sales of $2,500 or more would be subject to the $80 assessment.
In addition, the bill would amend the section of law outlining the reimbursement for persons who have performed corrective actions under the program by limiting the amount reimbursed for any one site to not more than $200,000 within a five-year period or as otherwise set forth by the Agricultural Remediation Board through rules and regulations. This section also would be amended to limit those reimbursements to pesticide dealers who have paid the $5 fee to no more than $10,000 for corrective action costs. Lastly, this section would be amended to clarify that the reimbursement for corrective action costs is limited to those who have paid the assessment and not those who are required to do so.
Background
Those appearing in support of the original bill included the Secretary of Agriculture, a representative of the Mid-America Lumbermen's Association, a representative of the Kansas Grain and Feed Association/Kansas Fertilizer and Chemical Association, and a representative of the Kansas Corn Growers/Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association. Appearing in opposition to the original bill was a spokesperson for the Kansas Agricultural Remediation Board. This spokesperson stated that since the legislation was so new, the Board's preference was not to make any amendments for another year. This conferee offered a number of amendments to consider if the Committee was to take action on the bill.
The fiscal note states that the Kansas Department of Agriculture indicates SB 254 would have a negligible fiscal effect.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext.cgi