News

Wisconsin Ag Board to consider latest animal fee proposal

Wisconsin’s ag board will discuss the latest attempt to set Wisconsin’s animal inspection fees Thursday.

Ag Secretary Randy Romanski tells Brownfield farmers and industry stakeholders strongly opposed the first proposed increase, which would have raised some costs 17-hundred percent.  Romanski says this second proposal is substantially lower. “This winds up being an inflationary adjustment, and then what the industry has also said is that they recommend that there be state general purpose revenue used to fill that gap in funding because the programs are important.”

Romanski says the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection Board sees administrative rule proposals multiple times, and the board authorized the first proposal so the agency could seek public comment. “And, because we got public input, we’ve been able to substantially revise those rules and, of course, the board will review those substantially revised rules and we’ll see what happens after that.”

Legislation has been introduced to freeze the fees, but there has been no effort yet to use general purpose revenue to make up the operating deficit for the programs. “DATCP does not control general purpose revenue. We are hopeful that the Legislature will take up that issue because there is still time and money available for the Legislature to hopefully work with us to fill that gap.”

Agriculture groups, marketers, and truckers have all spoken out against placing the entire cost of the programs on fees that would be passed on to farmers.

The DATCP Board meets at 9:00 am on Thursday, January 29^th in Madison.  The proposed changes would be part of ATCP 10 and ATCP 12 in the Administrative Code if finalized.