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REFERENCE TITLE: agriculture workforce program; interns; appropriation |
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State of Arizona Senate Fifty-fourth Legislature Second Regular Session 2020
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SB 1206 |
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Introduced by Senators Pratt: Allen S, Gray, Navarrete, Otondo
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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; annual report; program termination; definitions
A. The agricultural workforce development program is established to provide incentives to food-producing agricultural organizations to hire interns by partially reimbursing 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 do all of the following:
1. Establish qualifications for a food-producing agricultural organization to participate in the program, including need and the ability to effectively supervise an intern and provide the intern with a meaningful work experience that is focused on agricultural food production.
2. Provide a preference for food-producing agricultural organizations owned or operated by farmers and ranchers who are located in rural or tribal areas or who are HISTORICALLY underserved.
3. Require the food-producing agricultural organization to pay an intern an hourly wage rate that is at least the minimum wage established by this state pursuant to section 23-363.
4. Establish criteria for a food-producing agricultural organization to select qualified interns, including an intern's required educational experience and ability to perform meaningful work.
5. Establish the process and time frame for selecting qualified food‑producing agricultural organizations and qualified interns.
6. Establish accounting requirements for tracking internship costs.
7. Establish the process for a food-producing agricultural organization to seek reimbursement.
C. Subject to legislative appropriation, the department may reimburse a qualified food-producing agricultural organization up to the amount of the actual cost to the food-producing agricultural organization to employ an intern. Based on the annual legislative appropriation for this program, the director shall determine the number of internships to approve, the amount of reimbursement per internship and whether a food‑producing agricultural organization may be reimbursed for more than one internship in the same fiscal year.
D. On or before December 1 each year, the department shall submit a report regarding the effectiveness of the program in achieving the program's purpose to the governor, the president of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives and provide a copy of this report to the secretary of state.
E. The program established by this section ends on July 1, 2026 pursuant to section 41‑3102.
F. For the purposes of this section:
1. "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.
2. "Agricultural organization" means a business, nonprofit organization, community college or state university program related to agriculture.
3. "Historically underserved":
(a) Means a beginning farmer or rancher, a socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher or a veteran farmer or rancher as defined in 7 United States Code section 2279.
(b) Includes other limited-resource farmers or ranchers.
Sec. 2. Appropriations; Arizona department of agriculture; agricultural workforce development program; exemption
A. The sum of $250,000 is appropriated from the state general fund in each of fiscal years 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 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.
B. The appropriation made in subsection A of this section is exempt from the provisions of section 35‑190, Arizona Revised Statutes, relating to lapsing of appropriations.
Sec. 3. Effective date
Section 3‑109.03, Arizona Revised Statutes, as added by this act, is effective from and after December 31, 2020.