4.6.102    PETITION TO ELIMINATE A COMMODITY RESEARCH AND MARKET DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

(1)  After two years from the date of adoption, the department may, upon its own accord or upon receipt of a verified petition, call a hearing to determine if a program should be eliminated.

(2)  The petition requirements are:

(a)  name of applicant requesting elimination;

(b)  complete address of applicant;

(c)  if applicant is an organization, a list of officers with complete addresses and phone numbers;

(d)  statement that the program has been in existence for a minimum of two years;

(e)  a list of 15% or more of producer or grower names and signatures (include legibly printed name, addresses, and phone numbers) of this commodity who are petitioning the Montana department of agriculture to eliminate the program;

(i)  the petition must include only names of persons who qualify as a "grower or producer" as defined in 80-11-503 , MCA; "A person or land owner who is personally engaged in growing or producing commodities, or both the landowner and the tenant jointly. The term includes a person, partnership, association, corporation, cooperative, trust, sharecropper, and all other business units, devices and arrangements."

(f)  the department shall verify eligibility of petitioners as commodity producers using the definition in (2) (e) (i) and the list of eligible voters at the time the program was adopted; and

(g)  a petition shall be filed with the department either in person or by certified mail.

History: Sec. 80-11-504, MCA; IMP, Sec. 80-11-513, MCA; NEW, 2000 MAR p. 726, Eff. 3/17/00.