WSDA May Ask Lawmakers For Inspection Fee Increase

In an effort to chip away at an ongoing budget deficit, the Washington State Department of Agriculture is floating the ideas of increasing the fees the cattlemen and auction yards pay for livestock inspections.  WSDA’s Hector Castro told the Washington Ag Network the Livestock Inspection program, one of the Department’s oldest programs, is a critical service offered, not only for owners, but for the state’s animal traceability program as well.  He added when an inspector goes out, at $17 an hour, that rate doesn’t cover the Department’s costs.

“One proposal would be to raise that to $42 an hour when an inspector comes out.  And that may seem like a huge increase but we haven’t raised these fees in over a decade and other expenses just continue to rise.”

Castro notes the WSDA has not raised fees in over a decade, in the meantime, they’ve tried to keep costs down.  He said while important to the livestock industry across Washington, over the years, these inspections have moved into the red.

“The problem has been that the cost of providing those services vastly exceeds the revenue that we generate through the fees that are currently assessed for these various services.”

Castro notes that the WSDA has not made a decision about increasing fees, and are currently in talks with industry leaders to see how this would impact Washington producers.  He adds, before any rate hike would take place the Legislature would need to approve an increase, which would not occur until 2017 at the earliest.

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