Washington § 15.35.115 - Referendum on establishing or discontinuing market area pooling arrangement — Producer-dealers.

(1) Not less than sixty days before a referendum creating a market area and pooling plan with quotas is to be conducted under RCW 15.35.110, the director shall notify each producer-dealer regarding the referendum. Any producer-dealer may choose to vote on the referendum and each choosing to do so shall notify the director in writing of this choice not later than thirty days before the referendum is conducted. Such a producer-dealer and any person who becomes a producer-dealer or producer by acquiring the quota of such a producer-dealer shall be a fully regulated producer under such an approved plan and shall receive a quota which is not less than the sales of milk in fluid form from the producer facilities during the reference period used by the director in determining quotas for producers. Such a producer-dealer shall also be a fully regulated milk dealer under the terms of such an approved plan. RCW 15.35.310(1) does not apply to a producer-dealer who is subject to regulation under this subsection.

(2) If a person was not a producer-dealer at the time notice was provided to producer-dealers under subsection (1) of this section regarding a referendum on a proposed market area and pooling plan with quotas, the plan was approved by referendum, and the person subsequently became a producer-dealer (other than by virtue of the person's acquisition of the quota of a producer-dealer who is fully regulated under the plan), the person is subject to all of the terms of the plan for producers and milk dealers during the duration of the plan and RCW 15.35.310(1) does not apply to such a person with regard to that plan.

(3) This subsection applies: To a person who was a producer-dealer at the time the notice was provided to producer-dealers under subsection (1) of this section regarding a referendum which was approved and who did not notify the director under subsection (1) of this section to vote in that referendum; and to a person who acquires the facility of such a person.

If such a person's sales of milk in fluid form subsequent to the adoption of the plan increases such that those sales in any year are more than fifty percent greater than the sales of milk in fluid form from the producer facilities during any of the previous five years, RCW 15.35.310(1) does not apply to that person with regard to that plan. Such a producer-dealer shall be a fully regulated producer under such an approved plan and shall receive a quota which is not less than the producer-dealer's sales of milk in fluid form during the reference period used by the director in determining quotas for producers. Such a producer-dealer shall also be a fully regulated dealer under the terms of such an approved plan.

If changes are made, on a market area-wide basis, to the quotas established under the plan, the director shall by rule adjust the fifty percent limitation provided by this section by an equivalent amount.