ASSESSMENT.

(a) If an administrative committee is authorized to collect an assessment, for each marketing season or year in which the marketing agreement or license is effective the committee shall collect from each handler an assessment representing the handler's pro rata share of the estimated expenses incurred by the department in conducting hearings and incurred by the administrative committee in administering the agreement or license during the marketing season or year. The department shall estimate those expenses after each administrative committee submits to the department a proposed budget.

(b) An assessment levied under this section is a personal debt of each person assessed and is immediately due and payable to the administrative committee charged with collection. With the approval of the department, an administrative committee may sue in its own name in a court of competent jurisdiction for the collection of an assessment.

(c) In accordance with the rules of the department, each administrative committee charged with the collection of assessments shall collect, report, and pay monthly to the department the amount of the assessments that the department determines will be necessary to defray the department's cost of administering the marketing agreement or license during the subsequent month.

(d) The department shall submit to each administrative committee charged with collecting assessments quarterly statements reporting the receipts and expenditures during the quarter in connection with the administration of the appropriate marketing agreement or license.

(e) An administrative committee may expend assessments for the purposes set forth in the marketing agreement or license under which the assessment is collected. The committee shall keep a full and complete record of those expenditures and the department is entitled to access to that record at any time.

(f) An administrative committee shall retain custody of assessments that are not paid to the department or expended under Subsection (e) of this section. At the close of the marketing season or year for which an assessment is collected, the committee shall return to each handler a pro rata share of assessments that are not paid to the department or expended by the committee.