Food and agriculture: omnibus bill.

(1) Existing law regulates the production, handling, and marketing of milk and dairy products and requires milk products plants to comply with specified standards and requirements. Existing law authorizes the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to issue a limited packaging permit to a semifrozen milk products plant for on-premises manufacture and packaging of hard frozen dairy products or hard frozen dairy product novelties if certain requirements are satisfied. This bill would delete a requirement that an establishment be closed to the public when hard frozen dairy product novelties are manufactured and packaged and would delete a requirement that a manufacturer that directly serves frozen yogurt or nondairy frozen dessert on its premises post specified signs on the premises. (2) Existing law requires certain unfrozen product mixes used in the manufacture of specified frozen dairy products to comply with all of the requirements for ice cream, frozen dairy dessert, or frozen dessert, respectively. This bill would require frozen yogurt mix to comply with all of the requirements for frozen yogurt. (3) Existing law requires every milk handler to pay specified assessments and fees to the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to cover the costs of regulating milk. In that regard, existing law requires every milk handler who receives manufacturing milk subject to the milk marketing regulatory requirements or a handler subject to a milk stabilization and marketing plan, including producer-handlers, to deduct a specified assessment from payments made to producers for manufacturing milk or market milk, respectively. Existing law establishes the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund as a special fund, and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund for the administration and enforcement of, among other things, laws regulating the marketing of milk and other dairy products and the stabilization and marketing of market milk. This bill would, for purposes of those provisions, define the term "educational and research activities" and would additionally provide for the regulation of milk and dairy products-related educational and research activities. The bill would authorize the use of moneys from the above-described assessments and fees for administering and enforcing the manufacturing milk and market milk laws, including the regulation of those educational and research activities. By authorizing the expenditure of moneys from the fund for a new purpose, that is, for milk and dairy-related educational and research activities, the bill would make an appropriation. (4) Existing law establishes the California Citrus Advisory Committee and requires the committee to develop and make recommendations to the Secretary of Food and Agriculture regarding procedures for implementing an inspection program. Existing law requires producers of navel oranges, Valencia oranges, lemons, or mandarin citrus varieties grown in this state and prepared for fresh market in certain counties of the state to pay an assessment, as provided. Existing law requires the assessment to be collected from the producer by the first handler and requires that the assessment be remitted to the Department of Food and Agriculture by the first handler, along with an assessment form, at the end of each month during the marketing season. Existing law requires any handler that does not file the required assessment report and assessments by the 10th day of the month following the month for which the assessment is payable to pay a penalty of 10% of the assessment owed and, in addition, 1.5% interest per month on the unpaid balance. This bill would instead require a handler to file the required assessment form and pay the assessment and inspection fees by the last day of the month immediately following the month in which the commodities were received and would additionally apply the 10% penalty and 1.5% interest to a failure to pay an inspection fee. The bill would make a handler personally liable for the payment of assessments and inspection fees. (5) Existing law establishes the California Sheep Commission, comprised of 14 members who are elected or appointed in accordance with specified provisions to serve 2-year terms and limits the terms of office for each member to 4 consecutive terms. This bill would delete the provision limiting the terms of office of each member to 4 consecutive terms. (6) The California Land Conservation Act of 1965, also known as the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to contract with a landowner for the continued use of the land for agricultural use in exchange for a lower assessed valuation for property tax purposes. Existing law requires the Department of Conservation to provide a preliminary valuation of the land to the county assessor and the city council or county board of supervisors at least 60 days prior to the effective date of the agreed upon cancellation valuation if the contract includes an additional cancellation fee. This bill would specify that the Department of Conservation is required to provide the preliminary valuation pursuant to those provisions only if the department and landowner agree upon a cancellation value pursuant to a specified provision, as specified.