After public hearing, if the director decides there is justification for creating a cotton boll weevil control district, the department shall hold a referendum. When cotton producers who represent sixty-six percent of the cotton acreage within the area threatened with or infested by the cotton boll weevil vote in favor of the establishment of a cotton boll weevil control district, a cotton boll weevil control district shall be created. The cotton producers within a cotton boll weevil control district shall promptly establish, and shall elect not less than three nor more than seven members to, a cotton boll weevil control committee. Cotton boll weevil control committee members shall not receive per diem or compensation for their services. Cotton boll weevil control districts and cotton boll weevil control committees shall cease to exist when the cotton boll weevil control committee and the director determine that all financial and legal obligations have been satisfied.

History: Laws 1996, ch. 77, § 10; 1999, ch. 8, § 1.

The 1999 amendment, effective June 18, 1999, deleted "local" preceding "cotton boll weevil" in the catchline and throughout the section; in the fourth sentence substituted "Cotton boll weevil control" for "The" at the beginning, in the fifth sentence substituted the language beginning "when the" to the end of the section for "six months after the successful eradication of the agricultural cotton boll weevil, as determined by the director, or at the end of five years from the date of their creation, whichever is sooner", and deleted the last two sentences, relating to petitions and public hearings to extend the termination date of a cotton boll weevil district.