(1) The fruit and vegetable inspection account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. All fees collected under this chapter must be deposited into the account. The director may authorize expenditures from the account solely for the implementation and enforcement of this chapter and any other expenditures authorized by statute or session law and applying specifically to the account. The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but an appropriation is not required for expenditures.

(2) By August 1, 2004, and by August 1st of each even-numbered year thereafter, the director shall review the balance in the fruit and vegetable inspection account at the end of the previous fiscal year. If the balance in the account exceeds the sum of the following: An amount equal to the total expenditures of the program served by that account for the last six months of that previous fiscal year; any budgeted capital expenditures from the account for the current fiscal year; and six hundred thousand dollars, the director shall temporarily and equally, on a percentage basis, reduce each of the fees accruing to the account until such time that the account has a balance equal to the amount of the total expenditures from the account for the last seven months of the previous fiscal year, at which time the fees shall be returned to the amounts before the temporary reduction. In making the reductions, the director shall attempt to reduce fees for a twelve-month period so as to apply the reductions to as many of the persons who annually pay fees for services provided by the program. The temporary fee reductions shall be initially provided through the adoption of emergency rules. The emergency and subsequent rules temporarily reducing the fees are exempt from the requirements of RCW 34.05.310 and chapter 19.85 RCW. These fees shall be reinstated through the expiration of the rules temporarily reducing them and the authority to reinstate them is hereby granted.

Effective date—2002 c 322: "This act takes effect July 1, 2002. However, the director of the department of agriculture and the state treasurer may take actions before July 1, 2002, to permit the creation of the fruit and vegetable inspection account and the district accounts described in RCW 15.17.240 by July 1, 2002." [ 2002 c 322 s 8.]