Milk Price Discrimination. Current rules prohibit milk price discrimination by dairy plant operators. This rule does not extend the current rules to apply to other milk contractors. This rule updates some cross-references in the current rules, but does not change the current rules.
Vegetable Contractors
General. This rule requires vegetable contractors to comply with the new law, ch.
126, Stats. This rule supplements the new law, and amends or repeals rules that no longer apply.
Financial Statement; Disclosures. Under ch.
126, Stats., a vegetable contractor must file annual financial statements with DATCP if the vegetable contractor incurs more than $500,000 per year in contract obligations to producers. Other vegetable contractors may file
voluntary financial statements in order to avoid paying fund assessments or to qualify for lower fund assessments. A vegetable contractor's financial ratios may affect the following:
• The vegetable contractor's eligibility to participate in the fund.
•The amount that the vegetable contractor must contribute to the fund.
•Whether or not the vegetable contractor must file security with DATCP.
Under this rule, a vegetable contractor's financial statement must disclose and describe all of the following:• All notes, mortgages or other long-term liabilities not due or payable within one year.
•Any of the following items that are counted as assets in the financial statement:
- Any non-trade note or account receivable from an officer, director, employee, partner, or stockholder, or from a member of the family of any of those individuals.
- Any note or account receivable from a parent organization, a subsidiary, or an affiliate, other than an employee.
- Any note or account that has been receivable for more than one year, unless the vegetable contractor has established an offsetting reserve for uncollectable notes and accounts receivable.
Financial Statement Attachments. Some of the financial disclosures required by ch.
126, Stats., and this rule may be made in notes or attachments to the financial statement. Under this rule, an attachment to a reviewed or audited financial statement must satisfy the following requirements:
• The attachment must be on the letterhead of the certified public accountant who reviewed or audited the financial statement.
•The certified public accountant who reviewed or audited the financial statement must certify, in the attachment, whether the attachment is reviewed or audited.
Security Disclosures to Producers. This rule requires vegetable contractors to make security disclosures to producers, so those producers understand the extent to which payments are backed by the agricultural security program. This rule specifies the form in which a vegetable contractor must make the disclosures. A vegetable contractor must include the disclosures in the proposed vegetable procurement contract with each producer.
Fiscal Estimate
This rule will allow some contractors to pay smaller assessments to the Agricultural Producer Security Fund. This will cause a slight loss of revenue to the fund.
Chapter
126, Stats., establishes fund assessment rates. A contractor's assessment is generally based on the contractor's financial ratios (including debt to equity ratio) and the amount of grain, milk or vegetables that the contractor procures or stores in this state. DATCP estimates that grain, milk and vegetable contractors will pay a total of approximately $2 million in assessments each year.
This rule will allow some grain dealers, grain warehouse keepers and milk contractors to reduce their annual assessments by making certain adjustments to their debt to equity ratios. The rule allows these contractors to adjust their debt to equity ratios by deducting certain liabilities that are specifically identified in the rule. Contractors may use their adjusted debt to equity ratios to calculate their fund assessments. The department estimates that the adjustments will reduce total fund contributions by $50,000 to $70,000 per year.
You may obtain a complete fiscal estimate by contacting Kevin LeRoy at 608/224-4928.
Small Business Analysis.
This rule will affect the following small businesses:
•Agricultural producers. This rule will benefit agricultural producers by improving and clarifying the producer security program.
•Grain dealers. This rule will benefit grain dealers, by allowing them to make liability adjustments when calculating their debt to equity ratio for purposes of ch.
126, Stats. But this rule will also impose some additional requirements on grain dealers (including financial statement disclosures, as well as security disclosures to producers) that may involve some added costs.
These requirements are needed for the effective implementation of the agricultural producer security law.
•Grain warehouse keepers. This rule will benefit grain warehouse keepers, by allowing them to make liability adjustments when calculating their debt to equity ratio for purposes of ch.
126, Stats. This rule will also impose some additional requirements on grain warehouse keepers (including financial statement disclosures, as well as security disclosures to depositors) that may involve some added costs. These requirements are needed for the effective implementation of the agricultural producer security law.
•Milk contractors. This rule will benefit some cheesemakers by providing a custom processing exemption, and by allowing cheesemakers to make certain liability adjustments when calculating their debt to equity ratio for the purpose of making security fund assessments. But this rule will also impose some additional requirements on milk contractors (including financial statement disclosures, as well as security disclosures to milk producers) that may involve some added costs. The rule spells out minimum standards for milk contractors who wish to qualify as producer agents. These requirements are needed for the effective implementation of the agricultural producer security law.
•Vegetable contractors. This rule will impose some additional requirements on vegetable contractors (including financial statement disclosures, as well as security disclosures to depositors) that may involve some added costs. These requirements are needed for the effective implementation of agricultural producer security law.
Notice of Hearing
Commerce
(Financial Assistance to Businesses & Commerce)
[
CR 02-116]
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to ss.
227.14 (4m) and
227.17, Stats., the Department of Commerce will hold public hearings on proposed rules relating to the Agricultural Development Zone Program.
The public hearing will be held as follows:
Wednesday, October 16, 2002, 10:00 a.m.
T.G. Thompson Commerce Center
Conf. Rm. 3C, 3rd Fl.
201 W. Washington Ave.
Madison, WI
Interested persons are invited to appear at the hearings and present comments on the proposed rules. Persons making oral presentations are requested to submit their comments in writing. Persons submitting comments will not receive individual responses. The hearing record on this proposed rulemaking will remain open until November 1, 2002, to permit submittal of written comments from persons who are unable to attend a hearing or who wish to supplement testimony offered at a hearing.
Written comments should be submitted to:
Jean M. MacCubbin
Department of Commerce
Administrative Services Division
P.O. Box 2689
Madison, WI 53701-2689
These hearings are held in accessible facilities. If you have special needs or circumstances that may make communication or accessibility difficult at the hearing, please call (608) 266-8741 or (608) 264-8777 (TTY) at least 10 days prior to the hearing date. Accommodations such as interpreters, English translators, or materials in audio tape format will, to the fullest extent possible, be made available upon request by a person with a disability.
Analysis of Proposed Rules
Statutory authority: s.
560.798, Stats.
Statute interpreted: s.
560.798, Stats.
Under s.
560.798 (5), Stats., the Department of Commerce has the responsibility of promulgating rules for the operation of the Agricultural Development Zone Program.
This rule is being created in response to 2001 Wisc. Act 16, which provides authority for administering such a program, the designation of an agricultural development zone, the certification of agricultural businesses, and the determination of tax benefits available to certified agricultural businesses.
The following listing highlights the major items contained in this new chapter:
· Creates the process for application and designation of the Agricultural development zone.
· Provides a means for modification of the boundary of an agricultural development zone.
· Creates the process for application and certification of agri-businesses.
· Establishes criteria for eligibility to certify agri-business.
· Creates the process to determine and claim tax benefits and notifications to the Department of Revenue.
Environmental Assessment
The proposed administrative code revision is categorized in ch.
Comm 1, WEPA, Table 1.11-2 and determined to be a Type II action.
The proposed action is administrative in nature and has no potential direct effect on the quality of the human environment. The Department considers this action to have no potential for significant adverse impact.
The Department acknowledges that some projects receiving tax benefits under this chapter may result in new construction or expansion of existing structures or facilities These actions may involve new development or rehabilitation and an application for zoning and/or a conditional use permit may be required at the local level. The department acknowledges that these actions are under local jurisdiction and generally include provisions for the compliance with local, state or federal environmental review.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
1. Types of small businesses that will be affected by the rules.
The subject of the rules is to provide tax benefits for new and expanding agricultural businesses in a newly-designated agricultural development zone in the state. The expectation is that the creation of the zone will result in the attraction, promotion, retention or expansion of agricultural businesses and also provide economic stimulus to other businesses in the area and throughout the state.
2. Reporting, bookkeeping and other procedures required for compliance with the rules.
Agricultural businesses certified in the agricultural development zone shall on an annual basis report to the department and may file tax claim verification with the Department of Revenue.
3. Types of professional skills necessary for compliance with the rules.
No professional skills are expected to be required by agricultural business applicants.
Fiscal Estimate
Section
560.798, Stats., as passed in the 2001/03 biennial budget, establishes the Agricultural Development Zone Program. Commerce is provided the authority to develop rules concerning the designation of an agricultural development zone and the certification of businesses within those zones. Ch.
Comm 118 thus relates mainly to establishing that process and defining key terms.
1. State Fiscal Effect. By instituting a rigorous application process, the proposed rule will increase the workload for the Department of Commerce by requiring staff to review applications and make preliminary determinations as to designation of an agricultural development zone. Commerce can absorb this new work by using existing staff.
2. Local Fiscal Effect. Under the proposed rules, towns, villages, cities, tribes, and counties, either separately or in concert, may submit agricultural development zone applications. These applications are expected to be lengthy documents requiring a significant investment of time. Costs arising from the rules are, however, permissive since communities are not required to apply for participation in the program.
Notice of Hearing
Health and Family Services
Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to s.
980.067, Stats., the Department of Health and Family Services will hold a public hearing to consider amending ch.
HFS 95, Wis. Adm. Code, relating to the custody and control of sexually violent persons placed at facilities under s.
980.065, Stats.
Hearing Information
The public hearing will be held:
Thursday, October 24, 2002 at 10:00 a.m.
Conference Room 851-R
State Office Building
1 West Wilson Street
MADISON, WI
The hearing site is fully accessible to people with disabilities. Parking for people with disabilities is available in the parking lot behind the building, in the Monona Terrace Convention Center Parking Ramp or in the Doty Street Parking Ramp. People with disabilities may enter the building directly from the parking lot at the west end of the building or from Wilson Street through the side entrance at the east end of the building.
Analysis Prepared by the Department of Health and Family Services
The Department of Health and Family Services proposes to amend the title and several provisions in ch.
HFS 95, “Use of Force: Ch.
980, Stats., Patients," and create a new section of in the chapter, entitled “Escorted Temporary Patient Leave." The proposed amendments to ch.
HFS 95 are based on the Department's experience to date administering the chapter (the chapter became effective on February 1, 2002.) The proposed creation of a section of the chapter is in response to the creation of a new section 980.067 of the Wisconsin statutes through
2001 Wis. Act 16 (the biennial budget bill.) Section
980.065 of the statutes requires the Department to place persons determined to be sexually violent at selected facilities administered by the Department. Section
980.067 authorizes the superintendent of a facility at which a sexually violent person resides to allow that person to leave the grounds of the facility under escort. Section
980.067 also directs the Department to promulgate rules that express the policies and procedures for its administration of this process.
The new section of rules being proposed by the Department, s.
HFS 95.10, addresses circumstances under which a person committed to either the Wisconsin Resource Center or the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center could be allowed to temporarily leave the facility for selected reasons. The Department has proposed that these reasons be limited to the following:
- To privately visit a dying or deceased relative;
