§ 2981 - Rate and collection of assessment
§ 2981. Rate and collection of assessment
(a) Each producer shall pay each month an assessment of $0.10 per hundredweight from the price paid to the producer for milk produced by him or her and received by a handler. The funds shall be deducted from the producer's check, and the deduction identified on the producer's statement furnished by the handler. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 10 of this title, the assessment on the producer imposed by this subchapter shall be collected by and paid to the secretary of agriculture, food and markets of the state of Vermont, and shall be paid by him or her to the treasurer of the state of Vermont, to be held by the treasurer in a separate account entitled "Vermont dairy promotion fund." The interest earned by the fund shall be retained as part of the fund and shall be disbursed as provided by the provisions of this subchapter. Each handler receiving milk from a producer shall be liable for the assessment due under this subchapter from the producer; and each handler shall withhold from moneys due any producer the assessment due from that producer to the state under this subchapter, shall be responsible to the secretary for the payment and collection thereof, and shall not be liable to the producer or to any other person for the amount of the payment if the payment is paid to the state.
(b) Each handler shall pay the council each month two cents per hundredweight on all fluid milk sold for consumption within the state of Vermont. Each handler shall file a report and pay the handler's hundredweight fee to the council on forms provided for that purpose, except that handlers who sell less than 100 quarts of fluid milk per day may file reports and pay the prescribed hundredweight fees at the end of each three-month period. In case the same fluid milk is handled by more than one handler, the first handler within the state dealing in or handling the fluid milk shall be the handler within the meaning of this chapter. (Added 1965, No. 175, § 61; amended 1966, No. 52 (Sp. Sess.), § 1, eff. March 12, 1966; 1979, No. 101 (Adj. Sess.), § 5; 1981, No. 198 (Adj. Sess.), § 5, eff. April 22, 1982; 1987, No. 6, § 2, eff. April 1, 1987; 1989, No. 256 (Adj. Sess.), § 5, eff. Jan. 1, 1991; 1991, No. 232 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; 1999, No. 49, § 123; 2003, No. 42, § 2, eff. May 27, 2003; 2007, No. 157 (Adj. Sess.), § 12, eff. May 20, 2008.)