Kentucky's agriculture commissioner says the state's four-year-old fuel and pesticide testing lab has not lived up to its initial billing. James Comer told members of the state's interim joint committee on agriculture that his predecessor, Richie Farmer, sold the fuel lab as a great investment and moneymaker for the commonwealth.
"We have since learned that the fuel lab was hemmorraging around $900,000 a year, there was no business development plan to get contracts to test more fuel, and quite frankly we were so backlogged on the testing that we were doing that we couldn't have handled any additional business competently--if we had the business from surrounding states," said Comer.
Comer, a Monroe County native, told lawmakers he has cut staff and expenses at the lab. He says the changes will save Kentucky about $400,000 this year.
