In May, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) decided to postpone the license fee increase, which had been previously proposed as necessary to support the increased costs associated with the Food Safety inspection program.

As many of you know, retailers were notified during March of Department rule making proceedings to increase the food safety license fee schedule. Two public hearings were scheduled on April 28 and April 29, 2004.

The existing licensing fee schedule is based on gross annual sales, with a cap of $750 per store written into statutes. Many larger businesses were already paying the maximum fee of $750 per store and, because of the statutory cap, would not have been subject to any increase. Smaller businesses, however, would have been subject to increases of up to 100% or more, depending upon their current level of gross sales. The impact of the proposed fee increase would have been significantly greater for most small businesses.

During the public hearing held in Salem , ONSA testified that the proposed fee schedule was excessive and only served to accentuate the inequity of the existing fee structure. Similar comments regarding the inequity of the proposal were submitted by numerous small businesses.

As a result, ODA has agreed to postpone the license fee increase. However, this is not the end of the story. The Department will be preparing to introduce a legislative proposal to raise the statutory cap on the license fee. If approved, the removal of the cap would allow all license fees to be increased at the same time in a more equitable fashion.

ONSA was actively involved with the efforts to postpone the fee increase and will be monitoring the development of any new fee proposal. According to ODA, the size of the increase will depend upon the amount of General Fund support allocated to the Food Safety Program by the Legislature. Currently, 95% of the program is supported by fee revenue.