Governor Sam Brownback wants to spend an extra $430 thousand dollars to hire more state inspectors. They'll oversee the accuracy of thousands of scales and product scanners.
The Kansas Department of Agriculture's Division of Weights and Measures licenses private companies and technicians to install and service scales. State inspectors then "spot-check" a fraction of the work.
Brownback says it boosted compliance rates when he initiated the program more than 20 years ago as the state's agriculture secretary.
However, open records requests filed by the Topeka Capital-Journal last year revealed that the state's three inspectors had rejected almost three-fourths of the scales they spot-checked during a six-month period.
The paper also reported there were almost no penalties for the companies whose work was found wanting.
