Budget Amendment ID: FY2014-S3-519

EHS 519

Dockside Testing Trust Fund

Mr. Tarr moved that the proposed new text be amended by inserting, after section __, the following new section:-

Section 2 of chapter 29 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following new section:-

Section _____. There shall be established upon the books of the commonwealth a separate fund to be known as the Dockside Testing Trust Fund to be expended, without prior appropriation, by the department of public health.  The fund shall consist of fees collected from harvesters of molluscan shellfish on Georges Bank, in waters that are not monitored for the presence of paralytic shellfish toxin, in the amount of thirty-five thousand dollars per vessel that harvests in said waters.  The commissioner shall make necessary expenditures from this account for the administrative costs of the operations and programs of the department related to regulating and monitoring the shellfish harvesters, including the testing of the shellfish as necessary to ensure that they are safe for human consumption.  The department may incur expenses, and the comptroller may certify for payment, amounts in anticipation of expected receipts, but no expenditure shall be made from the fund that would cause the fund to be in deficit at the close of a fiscal year. Moneys deposited in the fund that are unexpended at the end of the fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund.  The department shall use amounts in said fund for the aforesaid purposes and for no other.