Don Lehe
On Friday the House passed the Corn Marketing Council bill on its third reading on a 90-0 vote. Representative Don Lehe authored HB 1128 that passed unanimously out of the Houaw ag committee. The main programmatic change in the bill is with the E-85 reimbursement fund that currently mandates $500,000 from ICMC be paid to the Budgetary Office each July to pay for the 18 cent tax credit retailers can receive for every gallon they sell of E-85 in January, February and March of each year. The bill sunsets this portion of the law, ending the program.
The bill cleans up several aspects of the law including:
- The definition of producer to more accurately reflect today’s farming business structures.
- Change the way the 10 percent cap on administrative expenditures is calculated. ICGA proposed the cap will be determined by calculating the 5-year Olympic average (that is disregarded in the high and low years) of actual receipts.
- To define the administrative cap to not include the processing of refunds or applying for grants.
- Allow the Corn Marketing Council to hold refunds of less than $25 to a producer until that amount is reached or on March 1 and September 1.
The Senate Ag and Natural Resource Committee passed SB 350, authored by Senator Bev Gard (R-Greenfield), that is the identical bill to HB 1128 that makes changes to the Corn Marketing Council on Monday, January 23. The bill passed unanimously. The bill includes an amendment from Indiana Ethanol Producers Association that deals with retail fueling liability when it comes to ethanol-blended fuels. This amendment is not part of the ICMC law but changes language in the fuel retailer’s law.
Post new comment