April 24, 2008

In tight budget year, farming still sees legislative successes

RICHMOND—The state’s largest general farm organization saw desired outcomes with regard to many of its priorities for the 2008 General Assembly.

Gov. Tim Kaine had until yesterday to amend or veto bills passed in this year’s state legislature.

In a tightening of the state’s belt, agriculture still managed to acquire some funding for key programs. Legislators appropriated $20 million for the state’s agricultural best management practice cost-share program for the first year of the biennium and no funds for the second year. While that is far less than the $100 million requested, “it does provide level funding from the previous fiscal year,” said Martha Moore, director of governmental relations for the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

Farm Bureau was among 10 farm and conservation organizations petitioning the General Assembly for $100 million per year for the next 10 years to improve and protect water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and Virginia’s Southern Rivers region.

The state/local matching funds program for purchase of development rights received $500,000 for the first year of the biennium and $1 million for the second year.

In addition, $500,000 was taken from additional operating funds for the Office of Farmland Preservation. The office maintains level funding from the previous fiscal year. “While this is much less than the governor proposed,” Moore noted, “it does maintain the program in such a strained budget year.”

Two amendments to Virginia’s constitution were introduced and carried over to 2009. They would better define “public use” with regard to eminent domain, to parallel state legislation passed in 2007.

Under current state law, the government cannot take private property except for a specific public use such as utility pipelines or roads. The current state constitution, however, allows the General Assembly to define public use. Amending the constitution involves passing a bill or bills in two consecutive General Assembly sessions before the amendment goes before Virginia voters in a general election.

Legislation was continued until 2009 that would have drastically expanded the rights of the state forester or his authorized representatives to go onto private property without the owner’s consent. As submitted, the bill sought to clarify purposes for which those individuals could enter private property without prosecution of trespass. Farm Bureau members expressed concerns that it was so broadly written as to encroach on their private property rights.

“While we certainly understand the Department of Forestry’s need to go onto private property to suppress forest fires, we believe that in non-emergency situations there should be a reasonable effort made to gain prior permission from landowners,” Moore said. “Farm Bureau will continue a dialogue with the forestry department this summer to try to reach a solution.”

Numerous bills relating to the care of animals were altered or withdrawn after Farm Bureau pointed out their implications for livestock operations.

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