Miller threatens to raise fees unless Ag agency gets more money

AUSTIN - Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller once again is clashing with the Legislature and threatening to unilaterally raise fees on farmers and ranchers.

Miller, a first-term Republican who ran as a hard-line conservative, has faced repeated questions about his spending decisions and weathered fierce criticism for raising licensing, registration and inspection fees by $11 million annually last year. Now, he is doubling down by promising to raise fees by another $5 million unless lawmakers give his agency more funding and more power to transfer money between programs.

"We're providing a protection and service to the producers and consumers of this state," Miller told a House Appropriations subcommittee last week. "I'm asking for the essential money to keep that service alive."

"If you give us our budget tools back, we can actually lower some of these fees," he added in an appeal to the Senate Finance Committee, arguing that many agencies have transfer authority and giving him that power would not cost the state anything.

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