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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, First Regular Session
agricultural workforce program; apprentices; appropriation.
Purpose
Effective January 1, 2022, establishes the Agricultural Workplace Development Program to provide incentives to organizations to hire apprentices and to reimburse apprenticeship costs, and prescribes requirements for the program.
Background
The Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) is statutorily established consisting of 6 divisions including animal services, plant services, environmental services, weights and measures services, pest management services, and the citrus, fruit, and vegetable division. The AZDA provides services to benefit the agricultural community such as formulating agricultural educational programs aimed to stimulate the production, consumption, and marketing of Arizona agricultural products. Statute outlines the AZDA's organizational administration including councils, funds, and training programs (A.R.S. Title 3, Ch. 1., art. 1).
SB1150 appropriates $500,000 in FY 2022 and FY 2023 from the state General Fund for the program.
Provisions
1. Establishes the Agricultural Workforce Development Program to provide incentives to food-producing agricultural organizations to hire apprentices by partially reimbursing apprenticeship costs.
3. Allows the AZDA to reimburse participating a food-producing agricultural organization up to the amount of actual cost necessary to employ an apprentice.
4. Requires the Director of AZDA to determine number of apprenticeships to approve, the amount of reimbursement cost, and whether the organization will qualify for more than one apprentice per fiscal year.
5. Requires the Director of the AZDA to adopt rules for program and requires the rules, at a minimum to:
a) establish qualifications for food-producing agricultural organizations to participate in the program, including need and the ability to effectively supervise apprentices and provide the apprentices with meaningful work experience that is focused on agricultural food production;
b) 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;
c) require participating food-producing agricultural organizations to pay apprentices an hourly wage that is at least the Arizona minimum wage;
d) establish criteria for participating food-producing agricultural organizations to select qualified apprentices, including required educational experience and ability to perform meaningful work;
e) establish the process and time frame for selecting qualified food-producing agricultural organizations and qualified apprentices;
f) establish accounting requirements for tracking apprenticeship costs; and
g) establish the process for participating food-producing agricultural organizations to seek reimbursement.
6. Requires the AZDA to submit an efficacy report annually by December 1 to the Governor, President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House, and provide a copy of the report to the Secretary of State.
7. Terminates the program on July 1, 2027.
8. Defines actual cost as the wages paid to an apprentice, a reasonable allocation of fixed overhead expenses and all incidental costs directly related to the apprenticeship.
9. Defines agricultural organization as a business, nonprofit organization, community college or state university program related to agriculture.
10. Defines historically underserved as a beginning farmer or rancher, a socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher or a veteran farmer or rancher, including other limited-resource farmers and ranchers.
11. Becomes effective on January 1, 2022.
Prepared by Senate Research
January 15, 2021
KN/RA/gs