House amendment saves Havemeister Dairy, for now

PALMER — The Havemeister Dairy has been saved, for now.

On Wednesday, House amendment 32 to the operating budget presented by Representatives Gerann Tarr and Palmer’s DeLena Johnson passed 24-13, fully funding the state dairy inspector at $180,000.

“It’s awesome obviously. I’m very happy. I’m just trying to see if it actually stays that way,” Ty Havemeister said. “From my perspective, I’m going to be fighting this for the rest of my life if this doesn’t figured out.”

The Havemeister Dairy began with Ty’s grandfather in 1935 and has been providing milk for 84 years. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s cut to the state dairy inspector left Havemeister Dairy, the only commercial dairy in the state, in jeopardy of folding within one month. While excited about the passage of amendment 32, Havemeister is still wary of the governor’s oft-referenced ‘red pen.’

“It’s still got to go through the Senate; and then hopefully, the governor doesn’t line item veto,” Havemeister said.

Republican Representative George Rauscher’s district features the Havemeister Dairy, and Rauscher submitted amendment 57, which was a suggestion from Havemeister. The amendment would have funded $50,000 to maintain inspections, but failed 20-19.

“If there’s a fee, I need to pay for lab service, then I’m happy to do that, but the main thing is going to be figuring out what the actual cost is,” Havemeister said.

Havemeister spoke with Wyoming Agriculture Director Doug Miyamoto to get information on how their dairy inspections work.

Wyoming has 12 dairies that were inspected with 591 manhours, traveling 13,000 miles. Havemeister used those figures to work with Rauscher on his amendment, noting that with one dairy and much, much less than 13,000 miles to travel, Alaska billed 2,500 manhours.

“As far as a fee for service, I don’t want this to seem like the dairy industry is being subsidized by the state. If that’s us paying a fee or pulling our fair share to get to that point, fine,” Havemeister said.

Rauscher noted that True North Plastics in Palmer supplies jugs for milk, and that Havemeister buys tons of grain from Alaska Mill and Feed.

The House passed their operating budget on Thursday, but it still has to pass the Senate and sneak passed the governor’s line item veto power.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.