County commissioners are questioning how the state uses money it collects from the sale of oyster licenses.
Since 1985 the state has required that oystermen buy a harvesters license – the sale of those licenses raises about 80 thousand dollars a year.
The money is used to help fund a Department of Agriculture oyster lab which is used to test water quality at oyster harvesting areas around the bay.
County commissioners, however, feel that some of that money might be better used if it were returned to the oyster industry in some form.
The board said that year would be a good year to make the request because the state sold a record number of oyster licenses so they should have plenty of extra cash on hand.
On average the state sells about 800 oyster licenses a year – this year they topped 1900.
Commissioner Pinki Jackel said the county should request that half of the money be returned to the county to use as a disaster relief fund or for some other program that directly benefits seafood workers.
Commissioner Jackel said the board should hold a public hearing to decide exactly how the fund would be set up.
The board said it might get our state representatives involved in the issue, but before they take that step they want to meet with a representative from the local oyster lab.
They agreed to invite a representative to their next board meeting.
http://www.oysterradio.com e-mail manager@oysterradio.com with comments
No comments:
Post a Comment