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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fourth Legislature, First Regular Session
agricultural workforce; interns; appropriation
Purpose
Establishes, effective January 1, 2020, the Agricultural Workforce Development Program (Program) to provide incentives for agricultural businesses to hire interns. Appropriates $275,000 in FY 2020 from the state General Fund to the Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) to implement the Program.
Background
The AZDA oversees and protects Arizona's agriculture, business and public health through licensing, inspections and laboratory testing. Additionally, the AZDA coordinates agricultural education efforts to foster an understanding of Arizona's agriculture and to promote a more efficient cooperation and understanding among agricultural educators, producers, dealers, buyers, mass media and the consuming public (A.R.S. § 3-107).
S.B. 1476 appropriates $275,000 from the state General Fund to the AZDA in FY 2020.
Provisions
Program (effective January 1, 2020)
1. Establishes the Program, effective January 1, 2020, to provide incentives to agricultural businesses to hire interns through partial reimbursement of internship costs.
2. Requires the Director of AZDA (Director) to adopt rules necessary to carry out the Program and requires the rules to establish:
a) qualifications for an agricultural business to participate in the Program, including the ability of the business to effectively supervise an intern and provide the intern with meaningful work experience;
b) internship requirements including the requirement that the internship provides at least 130 hours of work experience for a maximum duration of six months per intern;
c) criteria for an agricultural business to select qualified interns, including an intern's required educational experience and ability to perform meaningful work for the business;
d) the process and time frame for selecting qualified agricultural businesses and qualified interns;
e) accounting requirements for tracking internship costs; and
f) the process for an agricultural business to seek reimbursement.
3. Authorizes the AZDA, subject to legislative appropriation, to reimburse a qualified agricultural business a maximum of 50 percent of the actual cost to the agricultural business to employ an intern.
4. Requires the Director to determine how many internships to approve, the amount of reimbursement per internship and whether an agricultural business can be reimbursed for more than one internship in the same fiscal year.
5. Prohibits an agricultural business from being reimbursed for more than three internships in the same fiscal year.
6. Defines actual cost as the wages paid to an intern, a reasonable allocation of fixed overhead expenses and all incidental costs directly related to the internship.
7. Terminates the Program on July 1, 2025.
Appropriation
8. Appropriates $275,000 in FY 2020 from the state General Fund to the AZDA to implement the Program.
Miscellaneous
9. Becomes effective on the general effective date, with a delayed effect as noted.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 12, 2019
KN/LD/gs