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REFERENCE TITLE: agricultural workforce; interns; appropriation |
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State of Arizona Senate Fifty-fourth Legislature First Regular Session 2019
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SB 1476 |
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Introduced by Senators Otondo: Brophy McGee, Kerr, Pratt
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AN ACT
Amending Title 3, chapter 1, article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding section 3-109.03; appropriating monies; relating to the Arizona department of agriculture.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Title 3, chapter 1, article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 3-109.03, to read:
3-109.03. Agricultural workforce development program; rulemaking; definition; program termination
A. The agricultural workforce development program is established to provide incentives to agricultural businesses to hire interns through partial reimbursement of internship costs.
B. The director shall adopt rules pursuant to title 41, chapter 6 to carry out this section. At a minimum, the rules shall establish:
1. 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.
2. Internship requirements. At a minimum, an internship shall Provide an intern at least one hundred thirty hours of work experience for not more than six months in duration per intern.
3. Criteria for an agricultural business to select qualified interns, including an intern's required educational experience and ability to perform meaningful work for the agricultural business.
4. The process and time frame for selecting qualified agricultural businesses and qualified interns.
5. accounting requirements for tracking internship costs.
6. The process for an agricultural business to seek reimbursement.
C. Subject to legislative appropriation, the department may reimburse a qualified agricultural business an amount not to exceed fifty percent of the actual cost to the agricultural business to employ an intern. Based on the annual legislative appropriation for this program, the director shall determine how many internships to approve, the amount of reimbursement per internship and whether an agricultural business may be reimbursed for more than one internship in the same fiscal year. An agricultural business may not be reimbursed for more than three internships in the same fiscal year.
D. For the purposes of this section, "actual cost" means the wages paid to an intern, a reasonable allocation of fixed overhead expenses and all incidental costs directly related to the internship.
E. The program established by this section ends on July 1, 2025 pursuant to section 41‑3102.
Sec. 2. Appropriation; Arizona department of agriculture; agricultural workforce development program
The sum of $275,000 is appropriated from the state general fund in fiscal year 2019-2020 to the Arizona department of agriculture to implement the agricultural workforce development program established by section 3-109.03, Arizona Revised Statutes, as added by this act.
Sec. 3. Effective date
Section 3‑109.03, Arizona Revised Statutes, as added by this act, is effective from and after December 31, 2019.