Release Date: May 6, 2019
Contact: Donna Gilson, Communication Specialist, (608) 224-5130
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MADISON – A fee holiday for pesticide and fertilizer licensees and farmers purchasing fertilizer will continue into 2020, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection announced.
The fee holiday means that for the second year in a row, fertilizer dealers will omit the ACCP surcharge from their customers’ bills. It is the third year that pesticide and fertilizer businesses, commercial pesticide applicators, and pesticide manufacturers will not have to pay it as part of their license fees. The ACCP surcharge goes into the Agricultural Chemical Cleanup Program fund to help pay for the costs of cleaning up spills. The amount of the fee varies with the license type. The fee holiday will extend through June 2020 for fertilizer sales, and through the 2019-20 license year for other licensees.
“This is timely news especially for our farmers, who are already struggling with cash flow in a tough marketplace,” said Secretary-designee Brad Pfaff.
The surcharge is based on the level of the ACCP fund on May 1 of each year. When the fund remains above $1.5 million, the department does not levy the surcharge.
The fee holiday is a result of an effort beginning in 2015 to more closely align the revenues and expenditures in the department’s Bureau of Agrichemical Management, because fees collected were exceeding the funding needed for cleanup projects. The department recommended changes after a series of meetings with representatives from farm organizations, and the pesticide and fertilizer industries.
The fee holiday first took effect in 2018. The law requires that DATCP examine the fund balance on May 1 each year to decide whether to continue the fee holiday.
When the surcharge is in effect, fertilizer and pesticide businesses pay it when they renew their licenses, and farmers pay it when they purchase fertilizer.
Find a complete list of fertilizer and pesticide fees here.
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