Sen. Curtis King this morning told the Senate Agriculture and Rural Economic Development Committee that Washington would benefit if the state’s beleaguered beekeepers could take the money they pay in state taxes and invest it in the health of their hives instead.

King, R-Yakima, is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 6468, which received a public hearing before the agriculture committee. The bipartisan measure would exempt pollination services, sales of bees and use of bees from the applicable state taxes – which amount to about a dollar per hive – and lift state restrictions on farm diesel used by beekeepers.

“Beekeepers are very important to Washington, particularly agricultural areas on both sides of the Cascades,” King said. “But they’re under a lot of strain because of a mysterious disorder that is causing bee colonies to die off, and they’re not on equal footing with out-of-state beekeepers who can bring hives in and out of the state without paying taxes.

“We can use every honeybee we can get, and this bill would encourage our state’s beekeepers to stay in business,” he told committee members. “I’d rather see them use their income to keep their bees alive than write a check to the revenue department.”

Given their losses, some apiarists (beekeepers) in Central Washington are wondering how much longer they can afford to bring truckloads of hives over to Western Washington for pollinating berry plants and cranberry bogs, King said. A partial analysis by the state Office of Financial Management estimates SB 6468 would mean at least $162,000 in tax relief in 2009-11.

The tax exemptions in SB 6468 are almost identical to those in Senate Bill 6299, which the committee also heard today. However, King’s bill would go a step farther by allowing apiarists to use farm (untaxed) diesel when transporting bee products on public roads, such as moving hives to and from summer forage grounds in high-country logging areas.

Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, chairwoman of the agriculture committee and prime sponsor of SB 6299, is the lead Democrat sponsor of King’s measure.