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House Bill 1580 |
House Author: Flynn et al. |
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Effective: 5-27-09 |
Senate Sponsor: Hegar |
House Bill 1580 amends the Agriculture Code to continue the board of directors of the official cotton growers' boll weevil eradication foundation until September 1, 2021. It requires the foundation to conduct a study of the effects of incomplete cotton stalk destruction and volunteer cotton control on boll weevil eradication activities and to submit annual recommendations to the board and to the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) for a cotton stalk destruction deadline for each pest management zone. The bill requires the TDA to set a cotton stalk destruction deadline for each zone and to establish and collect a hostable cotton fee, per acre per week, for fields in which hostable cotton stalks, hostable volunteer cotton, or other hostable noncommercial cotton remains past the deadline. Collected fees, directed to the comptroller of public accounts, may be appropriated only for treating hostable cotton or for other expenses related to boll weevil eradication. The administrative committee that governs a pest management zone may request a deadline extension if adverse weather conditions or other good cause exists, and if the committee makes no request or its request is denied, an individual cotton grower may apply for an extension. The bill requires the foundation to submit to the TDA an estimate of the amount by which an extension will increase the cost of administering the boll weevil eradication program. Material remaining in the field for more than 30 days after the deadline or any extension is subject to 150 percent of the hostable cotton fee, and unless the fee is paid on or before the 45th day after the date of TDA notice that the fee is due, the TDA may destroy any cotton or cotton stalks that remain in the field. Under prior law, the TDA has had authority to destroy or treat volunteer or other noncommercial cotton. The bill makes such TDA destruction or treatment a requirement in the case of hostable cotton and requires the TDA to adopt rules providing for the regulation and control of volunteer and other noncommercial cotton in pest management zones and to give a grower or owner a specified time to undertake required destruction. Failure to accomplish such destruction subjects the grower or owner to a volunteer cotton fee set by the TDA.
House Bill 1580 authorizes the foundation, with the approval of its board and the commissioner of agriculture, to transfer proceeds from the collection of assessments in one eradication zone to another eradication zone, with certain conditions. The bill authorizes the commissioner to adopt certain rules that provide for an alternative method, manner, and mechanism to impose and collect assessments. It requires the TDA to submit administrative committee recommendations on cotton pest control to the foundation and requires the foundation to estimate the amount by which the implementation of each recommendation would increase the cost of administering the eradication program.