03/31/05 Specialty crops oppose fee hike

Washington Ag March 31, 2005 A proposal by the Washington State Department of Agriculture to raise fruit and vegetable inspection fees is being opposed by the Speciality Crop Coalition. In a letter to Agriculture Director Valoria Loveland, the coalition, which includes groups from the fruit and vegetable industries, asks for the immediate withdrawal of the proposed fee increase. Jim Hazen of the Washington Horticultural Association explains the coalition's position. Hazen: "We have a case where the state is taking money from a fee-for-service program like the Fruit and Vegetable Inspection Program and shifting nearly 9% of those funds back to Olympia for administrative overhead." Hazen says if the nearly one-million dollars a year being shifted out, were left in the Fruit and Vegetable Inspection program, there would be no need to raise fees. The revitalization of Washington State University's research and extension center near Mount Vernon has received a 100-thousand dollar donation from the Northwest Agricultural Research Foundation and a 10-thousand dollar contribution from Wilbur-Ellis. About one-and-a-half-million dollars of the total project cost of eight-million will come from private donations. There will be no fund raiser for R-CALF USA today at the Toppenish Livestock Commission. A rollover auction was cancelled. I'm Bob Hoff