NOTICES

INDEPENDENT REGULATORY REVIEW COMMISSION

Notice of Comments Issued

[49 Pa.B. 7257]
[Saturday, December 7, 2019]

 Section 5(g) of the Regulatory Review Act (71 P.S. § 745.5(g)) provides that the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (Commission) may issue comments within 30 days of the close of the public comment period. The Commission comments are based upon the criteria contained in section 5.2 of the Regulatory Review Act (71 P.S. § 745.5b).

 The Commission has issued comments on the following proposed regulation. The agency must consider these comments in preparing the final-form regulation. The final-form regulation must be submitted within 2 years of the close of the public comment period or it will be deemed withdrawn.

Reg. No.	Agency/Title	Close of the Public Comment Period	IRRC Comments Issued
47-20	Milk Marketing Board Transactions Between Dealers and Producers; Payment 49 Pa.B. 5455 (September 21, 2019)	10/21/19	11/20/19

Milk Marketing Board Regulation # 47-20
(IRRC # 3243)

Transactions Between Dealers and Producers; Payment

November 20, 2019

 We submit for your consideration the following comments on the proposed rulemaking published in the September 21, 2019 Pennsylvania Bulletin. Our comments are based on criteria in Section 5.2 of the Regulatory Review Act (RRA) (71 P.S. § 745.5b). Section 5.1(a) of the RRA (71 P.S. § 745.5a(a)) directs the Milk Marketing Board (Board) to respond to all comments received from us or any other source.

Section 143.15. Cooperative communication of over-order premium.—Clarity; Need for the regulation.

 Subsection (b) states,

For the purpose of this section, ''the specific amount of the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board over-order premium being paid'' shall be calculated monthly by each cooperative by dividing the total over-order premium paid to the cooperative by the total cooperative member pounds marketed.

 As written, the proposed regulation would result in a listing on each cooperative member's statement of the average over-order premium paid to the entire cooperative for a given month.

 In the Preamble, the Board explains the purpose of the proposed regulation as the following:

The Board mandates, by way of official general order, an over-order premium be paid to producers in this Commonwealth based on milk produced, processed and sold in this Commonwealth. The Board requires milk dealers to provide a line item on monthly statements to producers that shows the amount of over-order premium being paid. The [Milk Marketing Act] defines cooperatives as ''producers,'' so cooperatives are told how much over-order premium they are paid. However, there is no similar requirement that cooperatives provide a line item on monthly statements to their members that shows the amount of over-order premium the members are paid. This regulation would require cooperatives to provide a line item on monthly statements to their members disclosing the amount of over-order premium being paid.

 Rep. John Lawrence, whose efforts prompted the regulation, comments that the intent of the regulation is ''to ensure transparency and disclosure of state[-]mandated premiums to all Pennsylvania dairy farmers.'' To meet this need, Rep. Lawrence recommends that the regulation be amended to require monthly statements to show the amount of over-order premium paid to each individual member. A statement by the Board in the Preamble seems to support Rep. Lawrence's perspective: ''Because they lack information, many cooperative members are skeptical and even distrustful of the Commonwealth and Board, as well as the cooperatives, when discussing their income. They do not understand how the system is benefitting them in any way and believe they are not, in fact, receiving what they are entitled to receive.''

 The Board responds, in part, to Question # 10 of the Regulatory Analysis Form which asks why the regulation is needed, that ''the majority of those 4,500 producers do not have a line item currently on their statements detailing the amount of over-order premium they are being paid. Those producers, approximately 4,200—4,300, who do not have the line item are the intended beneficiaries of this regulation.''

 Based on the comment from Rep. Lawrence and the Board's explanations, we question whether the proposed regulation truly addresses the concerns of the cooperative members and the need stated by the Board. We ask the Board either to amend the final regulation to require monthly statements to show the amount of over-order premium paid to each individual member, or to explain in the Preamble how requiring cooperatives to provide an average over-order premium paid to the entire cooperative will alleviate the skepticism and distrust of cooperative members who do not believe they are receiving what they are entitled to receive.

 Additionally, a commenter notes that Subsection (b) does not expressly specify that the over-order premium received by the cooperative is to be divided only by the Pennsylvania member pounds received. Since cooperatives may market milk from members located in other states, we ask the Board to clarify that the over-order premium calculation does not include out-of-state pounds.

GEORGE D. BEDWICK, 
Chairperson

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 19-1823. Filed for public inspection December 6, 2019, 9:00 a.m.]

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