GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 1348

Short Title:  Cotton Promotion Funds.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Representatives DeVane, Cummings; Lee, Sutton, and Bowman.
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Referred to:  Appropriations.
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May 11, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE ACCUMULATED INTEREST FROM THE NORTH CAROLINA WAREHOUSE ACT FUND FOR NONRECURRING COTTON PROMOTION PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 106-435 reads as rewritten:
"§ 106-435. Fund for support of system; collection and investment.
In order to provide a sufficient indemnifying or guarantee fund to cover any loss not covered by the bonds hereinbefore mentioned, in order to provide the financial backing which is essential to make the warehouse receipt universally acceptable as collateral, and in order to provide that a State warehouse system intended to benefit all cotton growers in North Carolina shall be supported by the class it is designed to benefit, it is hereby declared: that on each bale of cotton ginned in North Carolina during the period from the ratification of this bill until June 30, 1922, twenty-five cents (25¢) shall be collected through the ginner of the bale and paid into the State treasury, to be held there as a special guarantee or indemnifying fund to safeguard the State warehouse system against any loss not otherwise covered. The State Tax Commission shall provide and enforce the machinery for the collection of this tax, which shall be held in the State treasury to the credit of the State warehouse system. Not less than ten per centum (10%) of the entire amount collected from the per bale tax shall be invested in United States government or farm loan bonds or North Carolina bonds, and the  remainder may be invested in amply secured first mortgage notes or bonds to aid and encourage the establishment of warehouses operating under this system, and to aid and encourage the establishment of farm markets designed to serve the marketing, packaging, and grading needs for the sale and distribution of unprocessed farm commodities when adequate markets are not otherwise provided. Such investments shall be made by the Board of Agriculture, with the approval of the Governor and Attorney General: Provided, such first mortgages shall be for not more than one-half the actual value of the warehouse property covered by such mortgages, and run not more than 10 years: Provided further, that the interest received from all investments shall be available for appropriation for capital projects and nonrecurring expenditures as provided in the act making the appropriation, and for the administrative expense of carrying into effect the provisions of this law, including the employment of such persons and such means as the State Board of Agriculture in its discretion may deem necessary: Provided further, that the guarantee fund, raised under the provisions of sections 4907 to 4925 of the Consolidated Statutes of 1919, shall become to all intents and purposes a part of guarantee fund to be raised under this law and subject to all the provisions hereof."
Sec. 2.  There is appropriated from the North Carolina Warehouse Act Fund to the Department of Agriculture the sum of four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) in accumulated interest for the 1993-94 fiscal year for nonrecurring cotton promotion projects and activities.
Sec. 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1993.