The House Finance Committee advanced two bills to Appropriations on 7-3 votes: HB 26-1111, creating a self-funded pesticide disposal and container recycling program through the Department of Agriculture, and HB 26-1132, directing the use of native plants on state lands to support pollinators. Both bills drew opposition from members citing fiscal concerns, while industry witnesses sought amendments to HB 26-1111's fee structure.
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Christopher Fenarelli, testifying for the Household Commercial Products Association, argued that the fee is a universal fee on all pesticides and that the bill needs to provide direction on what products will be exempted — not just that they can be exempted. Jordan Beasley of the Colorado Department of Agriculture countered that the inherent nature of an enterprise is that the fee only applies to those benefiting from the service, and that products not benefiting must be excluded through a rulemaking process, which is why the department created that process in the bill.
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“The reason I'm on this program is because I grew up on an 800 acre farm and I still own a farm. And I can assure to you we have barrels and buckets of old fertilizer. Well, Fertilizer, too, but pesticides that we don't know how to dispose of properly, and they just sit there literally for decades, and they even get handed down to the next generation.”
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Sign in to subscribeThe committee will come to order. Please call the roll. Representatives Brooks. President Camacho. Excuse. DeGraff. Excused. Garcia Gonzalez. Here. Hartsuk. Here. Marshall. He should be online. Can you send him the link? I sent him the link. Excused Stuart. Excused. Zokai Here to tone here. Mr. Chair here we actually have a quorum and we're going to get started. First up, House Bill 1111. Representative Morrow. Thank you Mr. Chair and Committee members. We appreciate your time today. House Bill 1111 is a Colorado pesticide disposal program. It's a new Colorado pesticide disposal program is proposed to provide a solution for commercial pesticide applicators and private farmers and ranchers that have not had an economical means to dispose of bulk or restricted use pesticides. The program's goal is to safely dispose of unused unwanted pesticides and recycle associated containers. It addresses a long standing issue, the lack of a viable cost effective disposal method for agriculture and commercial partners. The target groups are commercial and private agricultural applicators that have not had a viable cost effective disposal option. And it's directed toward agriculture products disposal with the ability to still dispose of other commercial and private individual pesticide products…
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