2-35-401. Purpose.

2-35-401. Purpose. (a) It is found and determined by the General Assembly that: (1) The Arkansas law which creates the Arkansas Beef Council authorizes an assessment of twenty-five cents (25¢) per head on all cattle sold in the state; (2) Since the enactment of the Arkansas law, the United States Congress and the United States Department of Agriculture have established a national beef promotion and research program under which there is an assessment of one dollar ($1.00) per head on all cattle sold; (3) Under the national program, a qualified state beef council is authorized to retain fifty cents (50¢) of each one dollar ($1.00) per head assessment for financing a state beef promotion and research program if authorized by state law; (4) The one dollar ($1.00) per head national assessment is currently required to be collected but is subject to a referendum within twenty-two (22) months after the issuance of the beef promotion and research order by the United States Secretary of Agriculture; (5) It is essential that appropriate legislation be enacted in Arkansas to provide for the collection of the one dollar ($1.00) per head assessment and the retention by the state of fifty cents (50¢) of each one dollar ($1.00) assessment during the interim from the date of the order until the referendum process is completed and thereafter in the event the producers voting at the referendum approve a continuation of the assessment; to further assure that in the event the producers voting at the referendum vote against continuing the one dollar ($1.00) per head assessment, the present Arkansas law providing for an assessment of twenty-five cents (25¢) per head will be automatically reactivated. (b) Therefore, it is the intent and purpose of this subchapter to suspend the collection of the twenty-five cents (25¢) per head assessment provided for in § 2-35-301 et seq. and to provide for the collection of the one dollar ($1.00) per head national assessment levied for beef promotion and research so long as the national program continues in effect, with fifty cents (50¢) of the assessment to be retained for the Arkansas Beef Council, and to provide that if the producers voting at the referendum provided for in the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985 and the administrative order issued pursuant thereto vote to discontinue the one dollar ($1.00) per head national assessment, then the provisions of § 2-35-301 et seq. and the assessment of twenty-five cents (25¢) per head of cattle sold in this state will be reactivated the same as if the national program had never existed.