Agriculture agency’s redo advances

A House committee on Wednesday approved a bill revamping the 12-year-old state Department of Agriculture.

Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward and Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, sponsor of House Bill 1725, said the legislation is aimed at efficiency and would save $600,000.

Opponents, including Ray Vester of Stuttgart, a rice farmer and member of the state Plant Board whose two-year term expires Friday, said the move will politicize a board that has been largely independent of politics since its creation in 1917. Before the meeting began, Vester said he was informed this week that he wouldn’t be reappointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

The House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the bill on a voice vote. While the vote sounded evenly divided, no member asked for a roll call. The bill goes to the House.

HB1725 utilizes what state government calls a “type 4” transfer, giving the secretary of agriculture more management control over boards and commissions in the department: the Plant Board, the Livestock and Poultry Commission, and the state Forestry Commission.

Ward and Douglas said the bill eliminates duplication among the various boards, such as each having its own human resources office. Previous secretaries of agriculture in the administrations of Govs. Mike Huckabee and Mike Beebe made some administrative changes but didn’t complete the job, Ward said. He said Hutchinson’s administration began working on efficiency across state gov-

ernment, including the Plant Board, two years ago.

“Let facts and logic prevail,” Ward said.

Vester, who has served 18 years on the Plant Board, said it doesn’t need any fixing. Only $500,000 of the Plant Board’s $10 million budget this year is from state general revenue. The rest is from fees for licenses, permits and chemical registrations collected from producers, manufacturers and others that do agribusiness in Arkansas, he said.

Vester said he believed the Plant Board and other commissions within the department will lose control of the fees.

Wendell Stratton, owner and manager of Stratton Seed Co. in Stuttgart, had similar

concerns. He said he opposed creation of the Agriculture Department in 2005, noting its budget has grown from $300,000 its first year to about $2 million now.

Vester and others voiced concerns about the bill when it was in draft form. Not long after it was filed Feb. 28, Douglas had the bill amended to specify that special revenue collected by the Plant Board and other boards will remain in their respective accounts.

Douglas also said qualifications and selection of Plant Board members won’t change.

The revamp of the Agriculture Department also will

result in the department hiring its own attorney, Ward has told various farm groups questioning the bill. In a March 6 letter to the Arkansas Rice Federation, Ward said the department has been served well by a representative of the attorney general’s office but an “increased demand” for legal services in both agencies has made it necessary for the department to hire its own lawyer.

The Agriculture Council of Arkansas voted to support the bill just before its filing, but on March 1, its president, West Higginbothom told Hutchinson in a letter that the Plant Board must be able to maintain its independence and keep control over the fees it collects. “This helps keep politics away from this arena and allows for industry driven decisions over government driven decisions,” Higginbothom wrote.

The board of the Arkansas Crop Protection Association, which represents major herbicide-and pesticide-makers, including Dow, DuPont, Helena Chemical Co. and Monsanto, sent an email Saturday to all 135 lawmakers stating its opposition to HB1725.

“We believe [the transfer] will insert political influence into decisions that should be based on science that applies to Arkansas agriculture. Another level of government does not create efficiency,” its president, Kyle Colwell, wrote.

HB1725 also transfers to the Agriculture Department three sectors now under the Arkansas Development Finance Authority: the Farm Mediation Office, the Veterinary Medical Examination Board and the Board of Registration for Foresters. Each of those sectors has one employee, according to Ward.