HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Beekeepers are urging legislators to preserve funding for the state's bee inspector, especially at a time when pests and disease are threatening honeybee colonies around the world.

An online petition is urging the General Assembly to fully fund the state apiary inspector, who is responsible for checking bees brought into the state for disease and helping Connecticut's 1,400 registered beekeepers.

The campaign was launched as legislators grapple with a budget deficit this year that's at least $220 million. Next fiscal year is projected to be $900 million in the red. Each fiscal year is approximately $20 billion.

Connecticut Beekeepers Association President Steve Dinsmore said his group is afraid the inspector position -- created more than a century ago when the state faced an outbreak known as "foul brood" that affected bee colonies -- is going to be eliminated.

"It's a threatened industry," Dinsmore said. "Even with the bee inspector, we've got big problems in this state and it's just going to get worse if we don't have a bee inspector."

A message was left seeking comment with Mark Creighton, the state apiary inspector. Dinsmore credits Creighton, who works in New Haven and who inspected more than 1,200 colonies in Connecticut last year, with garnering enough money in federal grants to exceed the cost of his salary.

"We're talking about one position. It's a grain of sand in the state sandbox," he said. "If you like apples, fresh fruit and vegetables, honeybees are very important. And their continued health and the chances of improving their health are increased by maintaining this position."

The online petition, started by the Connecticut Beekeepers Association, comes as state legislators consider a bill this session that would create a new statewide plan to protect the health of pollinators, including bees.

That bill calls for steps such as reducing airborne dust from insecticide-treated seeds, reclassifying certain pesticides as "restricted-use pesticides" and requiring utility rights-of-ways to include habitats that will attract pollinators.

The focus on pollinator health, seen by proponents as pivotal to maintaining the state's agricultural industry, ties in with a national strategy to restore honeybee colony health, increase Eastern monarch butterfly populations and eventually restore millions of acres of land for pollinators.

During a recent debate in the legislature's Environment Committee, there was disagreement about whether that bill should also call for continued funding for the state bee inspector, who would likely be involved with such a plan.

"This is something we're supposed to take a stand on," said Rep. Craig Miner, R-Litchfield.

But Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., D-Branford, the committee's co-chairman, said he worried the proposed pollinator health plan could be at risk if the bill includes language requiring the bee inspector position to be funded, given the state's fiscal situation. He said if that happens, the state will have to wait another year before implementing the plan.

"I don't want this to die," Kennedy said. "This is more than a single bee inspector for the state of Connecticut."

Richard Norman, vice president of the Eastern Connecticut Beekeepers Association, said he'd like lawmakers to focus on both issues.

"I think they go hand in hand," he said. "I don't think you can do one without the other."