§ 35YY — Dockside Testing Trust Fund

Section 35YY. There shall be established upon the books of the commonwealth a separate fund to be known as the Dockside Testing Trust Fund to be expended, without prior appropriation, by the department of public health. The fund shall consist of fees to collected from harvesters of molluscan shellfish on Georges Bank in waters that are not monitored for the presence of paralytic shellfish toxin in the amount $35,000 per vessel that harvests molluscan shellfish in those waters. The commissioner shall make necessary expenditures from the fund only for the administrative costs of the operations and programs of the department related to regulating and monitoring the shellfish harvesters, including the testing of shellfish as necessary to ensure that they are safe for human consumption. The department may incur expenses and the comptroller may certify for payment amounts in anticipation of expected receipts, but no expenditure shall be made from the fund that would cause the fund to be in deficit at the close of a fiscal year. Moneys deposited in the fund that are unexpended at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund.