02/08/07 Aquanol van

The Idaho potato industry has a couple of goals it wants to reach. One is to limit potato acreage and the United co-op effort has gone a long way toward attaining that. The other is to increase potato consumption and the best way to do that is through advertising and promotion. Idaho Potato Commission President Frank Muir says that's why it's imperative to increase the current tax rate of ten cents per hundredweight. MUIR "With the legislature's approval and the vote of the commissioners we could increase the tax up to an additional five cents but we have agreed with the industry that in the first year out of the box we will only take it up to two and a half cents. Today Muir and others will testify before a House committee in Boise. If the spud tax proposal gets committee approval it goes to the full house for a vote, then on to the Idaho Senate for more of the same. MUIR "Votes we anticipate will take place by the mid to late March in both houses. This coming July and August would be the commission voting on what the actual tax would be of that cap and that would be for next year's crop." Muir and the potato commissioners spent a lot of time in November and December meeting with growers, shippers, packers, anyone involved in the industry, emphasizing the importance of increasing the advertising budget through the tax increase. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott