Department of Agriculture and Markets

The enacted budget makes the following changes to the Executive Budget (analysis as of March 27, 2012):

·        No changes are made to the agency’s State Operations appropriations.

·        Deletes the Article VII proposals Part Z of S6258D/A9058D is omitted) which would have authorized the Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets to enter into contracts and cooperative agreements to provide services (such as milk or food safety inspections and training) of the Department for a fee to governmental and educational entities when it serves the public interest. All other Article VII proposals for the department are enacted

·        Rejects the broad Executive Budget proposal to allow the Executive to have unlimited transfer and interchange authority over all State Operations appropriations. Instead it creates specific transfer and interchange authorizations for this agency’s State Operation appropriations: OGS/Back Office, Call Center, and Information Technology. In general this authority allows the Executive to move appropriations between state agencies for these purposes. For additional detail please see page 5 of the Summary of the SFY 2012-13 Enacted Budget memo.

The Senate and Assembly recommend (analysis as of March 14, 2012):

The Senate and Assembly accept the Executive Article VII proposals except for the following:

The Senate denies the proposed legislation (Part Z of S6258/A9058) to authorize the Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets to enter into contracts and cooperative agreements to provide services (such as milk or food safety inspections and training) of the Department for a fee to governmental and educational entities when it serves the public interest.  The Assembly modifies the proposal to limit billing authority to federal and out-of-state entities.

The Executive Budget recommends (analysis as of January 21, 2012):

A SFY 2011-12 workforce of 488, a reduction of 7 FTEs from the adjusted 2011-12 level.  However the adjusted FTE level for 2011-12 is a decrease of 16 FTEs from the level projected in last year’s budget.  The following chart identifies adjustments in current fiscal years FTEs along with the recommended differences in FY 2011-12 FTEs by program (if the FTE’s are the same the program is not listed):

·  An All Funds appropriation of $119.64 million, a decrease of $6.56 million, -5.2%.

·  Decrease in funding primarily reflects a 2.5 percent year-to-year reduction in General Fund State operations funding (principally through attrition and the use of enterprise shared services), and the elimination of certain non-recurring expenses (e.g., information technology).

·  Restructuring the Consumer Food Program. Food safety expenses and licensing revenues currently deposited into a special revenue account will be redirected to the General fund, in order to correct an account imbalance and maintain existing levels of food safety inspection and oversight.  This is reflected by the elimination of the consumer Food Industry SRO (-$10.3 million) and the increase of $5.03 million in Personal Services in the Consumer Food Services program.

·  The total appropriation for Personal Service is $44.65 million, a decrease of $704,000 or          -1.6%.

·  A $1.01 million, or -45% decrease in the personal service appropriation for the Special Agriculture Inspecting & Marketing Account is partially offset by an $894,000 personal service increase in the Administrative Program.

·  The total appropriation for Contractual Services is $38.56 million, or a decrease of $1.26 million or -3.2%.

·  The Department employed an estimated 21 employees under consultant contracts in SFY 2011-12 (or approximately 19 FTEs) at a cost of $896,000 thousand. It is estimated that 8 consultant employees, or 2 FTEs will be employed in SFY 2012-13 at an estimated cost of $274,178 thousand.  The expenditures may include more than personal service costs and is inconsistent with Office of State Comptroller data on consultant spending so it is difficult to draw conclusions as to the cost per consultant employee.

·        MAJOR Article VII legislation:

·        Proposes legislation to eliminate the mandate that the NYS Agricultural Experiment Station be the exclusive seed testing entity in the State, and allow testing to be conducted by the Department of Agriculture and Markets or a qualified laboratory.  Enactment of this bill is necessary to implement the 2012-13 Executive budget as it would enable the Department to save $78,000 annually if testing were performed by the Department or a qualified laboratory.   A9058/S6258 – Part L.

·        Proposes legislation to authorize the Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets to enter into contracts and cooperative agreements to provide services (such as milk or food safety inspections and training) of the Department for a fee to governmental and educational entities when it serves the public interest.  The bill will allow the Department to recoup costs associated with services it provides that are related to its core mission.  A9058/S6258 – Part M.

·        Proposes legislation to redirect certain fees currently deposited to the Consumer Food Account and the Commercial Feed Licensing Account to the General Fund, in order to correct an account imbalance and maintain existing levels of food safety inspection and oversight.  A9058/S6258 – Part N.