By MARK POWELL

Despite opposition from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, Maryland’s ag license plate appears destined for reality.
Legislation calling for the creation of an ag tag by July 1, 2001, passed the state legislature as lawmakers were wrapping up business last week. The bill, which would provide funding to the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation and its Ag in the Classroom programs, is awaiting the signature of Gov. Parris Glendening.
The Maryland Department of Agriculture supports the ag tag and the governor is expected to sign the bill.
Steve Connelly, executive director of MAEF, said he was “exuberant” over the support of the legislature for the ag tag. “It means a great deal to ag education in Maryland,” Connelly said.
Connelly said the ag tag could bring more than $100,000 a year to MAEF, depending on sales of the license plate once it is created. A design team will be named later to develop the tag’s appearance.
The esign teammould work to accomplish these goals: improve ag awareness; create an attractive plate which would sell to as many vehicle owners as possible.
The ag education foundation also is the beneficiary of a bill which will allow MAEF to transfer $100,000 in state funding to a new location for MAEF’s proposed headquarters. The foundation’s initial site at Swan Harbor in Harford County ran into last-minute problems with the ground perking for health department approval.
Connelly said the foundation is now looking at Mt. Soma, the ancestral farm of the Amoss family in Harford County. It was settled in 1710 by William Amoss of England and is now 60 acres preserved through Program Open Space funding. The MAEF building would be named for the late Sen. William Amoss, who represented Harford County in the state legislature for years.
On other legislative issues, the governor put $250,000 into his supplemental budget to fund the newly launched Agro-Ecology Center housed at the University of Maryland’s Wye Research and Education Center.
The Ag Education and Rural Development Assistance Act also received some $422,000 in Glendening’s budget. That legislation, which at presstime was still be worked on the State Senate, would provide $75,000 to the Forum for Rural Maryland and establish a grants program to be run by the state’s Department of Business and Economic Development from which rural agencies and organizations could seek funding. Originally, the legislation would have provided targeted funding to the Forum, the state agricultural leadership development program (LEAD-Maryland), MAEF, American Farmland Trust and various rural groups.
The Forum for Rural Maryland is working to, among other things, “preserve agriculture and other natural resource-based industry as an integral part of Maryland’s rural economy and culture.”
Also in the governor’s supplementary budget is $80,000 for the Maryland Horse Industry Board. According to board member Greg Gingery, that money will be used to study the Lexington, Ky., horse park with a goal of creating such a facility in Maryland. And, he said, about $50,000 of the total will be spent on a program to promote the state’s horse industry.
The Horse Industry Board’s current budget is about $43,000. Much of that total is spent on paying for the state’s inspection program of boarding stables.
Another issue tracked by rural interests in the state appeared to be heading to summer study, Annapolis observers said late last week. The governor’s push for nitrate removal equipment for septic systems appeared likely to put aside for another year so legislators could study the impact of such a mandatory program. Maryland Farm Bureau and other ag interests had opposed the proposal, saying it would unfairly target rural homeowners and would be extremely costly.
Also at presstime, the State Sen. Lowell Stoltzfus’ proposal to have the University of Maryland provide free soil testing for farmers was stalled in the House of Delegates, having passed the Senate. Stoltzfus, a Somerset County farmer, had reasoned that free soil testing is something of an obligation for the state, since it has mandated nutrient management planning. University of Maryland ag dean Dr. Tom Fretz had supported the bill, but said he did not have money in his budget to provide free soil testing.
Another bill passing both houses will establish a pilot program to study hemp production. And at presstime, a measure to provide state funding to pay down crop insurance premiums had passed the house and appeared likely to pass the Senate.