IDA Funding

This year, IFCA supported moderate fee increases upon our industry to ensure the continued operation of the Bureau of Environmental Programs at the Illinois Dept of Agriculture.  HB 4866 has passed both Houses and awaits the Governor's signature.  The unfortunate reality of our state budget situation is this:  the state was not going to fund at a sustainable level the regulatory programs vital to our industry including pesticide licensing, containment, misuse investigations, container recycling, pesticide product registrations, etc.  Many of these regulations are mandated by USEPA and we rely on the oversight of the IDA inspectors to keep us from being regulated by Region 5 USEPA in Chicago.  For ag retailers, the fee increase you will see is a $100 agrichemical facility permit fee, paid upon the time of application or renewal.  Since permits are renewed only once every 5 years, that equates to $20 per year for agrichemical facilities.  Pesticide license fees will increase slightly for private applicators, but not for commercial applicators.  The cost for the pesticide manufacturers to register products for sale in Illinois will increase $100 per product.  IFCA worked closely with IDA and the state legislature to communicate the need for a strong IDA to keep our industry functioning legally as well as working with us to ensure proper stewardship of agrichemicals.