January 4, 2002

Farm organization’s legislative priorities are diverse

When the Virginia General Assembly convenes on Jan. 9, the state’s largest farm organization will ask members of the Virginia General Assembly to support a variety of programs that benefit Virginia farmers.

Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s legislative priorities for 2002 were shaped with input from county Farm Bureau representatives across the state. Farm Bureau leaders will visit Richmond on Jan. 21 to meet with their state senators and delegates.

Topping VFBF’s list of legislative priorities are requests for state funding for the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practice Cost-Share Program and the Virginia Agricultural Vitality Program.

The BMP Cost-Share Program assisted farmers with expenses related to fencing cattle out of streams, building animal waste storage facilities and implementing other practices that protect the environment. Funding for the program ran out in 2000 and was not made available in 2001. Farm Bureau will ask legislators for $5 million for it over the next two years.

"Virginia farmers have a willingness—and a reputation—for protecting the environment," said VFBF President Bruce L. Hiatt. "But these protective measures, including state-mandated ones, are not cheap. We’re asking for assistance comparable to what’s been made available to help cities and towns upgrade sewage treatment facilities—for much the same reason."

The Ag Vitality Program was created in 2000 to help keep farmland in production and control sprawl. It lost its state funding in the 2001 budget impasse. The program would include a model local purchase of development rights program and related funds for use by localities across the state. It also would offer resources for aspiring and new farmers, as well as for farmers planing to retire and farm families wishing to plan for the transfer of property.

Ag Vitality proponents believe it will need at least $30 million to be successful.

Farm Bureau and a legion of other agriculture and forestry organizations will ask the General Assembly to create a governor’s cabinet-level secretary of agriculture and forestry position.

"We believe it is both timely and appropriate to create a secretary of agriculture and forestry position," Hiatt said. "These two industries contribute more than $47 billion a year to Virginia’s economy, and Virginia’s ports are national leaders in the export of farm goods."

Farm Bureau also plans to ask that the General Assembly consider alternate forms of local taxation to real estate taxes, and to propose that localities share a portion of the state’s income tax receipts, based on an equitable formula.

"The simple fact is that real estate is not the soundest measure of wealth anymore," Hiatt said. "Farmland does not generate the same type of income that land used for some other purposes does, and this has led to a tax system that places an unfair burden on rural communities."

Other priorities for Farm Bureau include re-established funding for the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, and funding for the Dairy Center and Livestock Teaching Arena at Virginia Tech. The organization also supports continued use of biosolids as a source of nutrients on farmland.

Outgoing Gov. Jim Gilmore’s budget plan for 2002-2004 includes no funding for most of the organization’s agenda.

Contact Martha Moore, VFBF public affairs director, at 804-290-1013 or Pam Wiley, VFBF publications editor, at 804-290-1128.