Hot News

4.29.2008

By STEPHANIE JORDAN
Associate Editor

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Officials in the agricultural industry have called the 2008 legislative session a “relatively productive” one for the farming community, despite the state’s budget shortfall.
The shortfall affected every industry across the state, so there was no major funding in any segment “because of budget concerns and concerns about what the economy will do,” said Sen. Richard Colburn, R-Dist. 37.
Colburn said the 2008 session was his 22nd one serving the state, and that “often times, you have to gauge the session on bad legislation that died.”
The legislation he is referring to is Senate Bill 964, which would have required that Nutrient Management Plans completed by farmers be released to the public.
“The fact that the bill died in committee is considered a real plus for agriculture,” Colburn said. “The ag community has tried to form a working relationship with groups (like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation) and do its part in the Chesapeake Bay cleanup. That bill would have been a turn in the wrong direction.”
Bill Satterfield, executive director of the Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. (DPI), said that despite the tight fiscal situation, there were bills passed that will benefit the agricultural community and the poultry industry.
“Unlike the situation of six to 10 years ago, DPI spent more time in 2008 supporting bills than opposing bills,” he said. “All in all, it was a good session for the chicken industry and DPI members.”
Lynne Hoot, executive director the Maryland Soil Conservation Districts and the Maryland Grain Producers Association, said that overall, it was “generally a successful legislative session. I think most of us were expecting some of the worst with some of the anti-agriculture sentiment going on.”
The Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund, which was to have $50 million to annually address non-point sources of pollution, had its budget cut in half, to $25 million.
Hoot said there was not a lot of money to go around, but it’s still $25 million, and a “fairly significant portion of that will be spent on agriculture.”
Soil Conservation District professional staff also will receive an increase in their salary as a result of the legislative session, which will help in employee retention.
Buddy Hance, Maryland’s deputy secretary of agriculture, said the department anticipated more legislation, “but it didn’t materialize.”
Other than the the 2010 Trust Fund and Next Generation farmland acquisition bills, it’s been “sort of a quiet year.”
He said he hopes the state’s fiscal situation will be better next year, so that the Trust Fund will be able to get back up to its annual $50 million. And over the next year, the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) will be helping to develop a process to implement the Maryland Dairy Farmer Emergency Trust Fund, a bill that passed the General Assembly but was not given funding this year.
Val Connelly, director of government relations for the Maryland Farm Bureau, said finding funding for the dairy fund next year will be a priority for the organization.
“We passed the bill to create the fund this year,” she said. “Now we have to work with the governor and his staff to get annual appropriations for the program.”
Connelly also said the House Environmental Matters Committee will start their work in looking at water use across the state.
“One of the big concerns for farmers is that we have enough water available to irrigate crops and water livestock,” she said. “We will be working with the committee and with farmers over the summer to make sure farm-use of water is a priority in any future legislation.”
Connelly said she would like to see something come back from the Tax Incentives for Agriculture Task Force come back for the 2009 session. Del. Rudolph Cane, D-Dist. 37A, and Sen. Roy Dyson, D-Dist. 29, chaired the task force.
“Senators Dyson and Colburn and Delegate Cane, together with representatives of the farm and environmental community, put a tremendous amount of time into the Task Force work last summer and fall,” she said. “The tax items identified are very important. This year the bill was put in as one comprehensive reform bill (SB 434/ HB 898). The fiscal note was simply too large. Hopefully we can separate out some of the tax ideas and draft separate bills for the 2009 session.”
One of the recommendations from that task force was the elimination of the estate tax for farmers.
Hoot said she would like to see the estate tax gone, and that she has sat in committee hearings on the very subject for about 15 years.
This year, though, there was a lot of interest and a great deal of questions.
“Given better economics, it might be time” to eliminate the estate tax, she said.
Hance said MDA is sending out feelers to ramp up for next year’s session, although the department’s primary focus for the time being will be the revised draft of the Maryland Animal Feeding Operations permit, which is set to come out Thursday.
“We are very pleased by this year’s legislative session and are already working to get these laws up and running,” said Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Roger L. Richardson in a press release. “We thank Gov. O’Malley, the General Assembly, the farm community and the citizens who pushed for passage of these bills. Their support shows that more people are recognizing how important agriculture is to their lives.”
The following ag-related bills have been signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley, as of press time:
• HB 140, allows a credit against the Maryland income tax for specified cellulosic ethanol technology research and development expenses paid or incurred by an individual or corporation;
• HB 208 and SB 419 establish the Maryland Wild Pollinators Program to increase awareness of wild pollinators and the availability of noninvasive plants that are pollinator friendly; and requires MDA to provide grants to increase the availability of seed and nursery stock for noninvasive plants that are pollinator friendly;
• HB 227 extends the authority of the secretary of agriculture to impose penalties on any person who violates animal health requirements;
• HB 228 changes requirements for veterinary hospital inspections to allow the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners to focus resources where needed;
• HB 369 and SB 213 alter the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund and its purposes by establishing in statute the BayStat Program and requiring the BayStat Subcabinet agencies to distribute the funds to various entities for non-point source pollution controls particularly for agricultural cover crops and best management practices;
• HB 543 establishes the Maryland Dairy Farmer Emergency Trust Fund, administered by the MDA, to provide financial assistance to dairy farmers during periods of economic hardship due to depressed milk prices. The governor would be authorized to provide funding through general funds;
• SB 920 establishes a Task Force to study statewide gypsy moth infestation to report its findings and recommendations to the governor and the General Assembly on or before Aug. 31, 2009;
• HB 976 requires that releases from easement restrictions issued by the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation (MALPF) include a statement acknowledging the status of adjacent farmland; and altering the size of lots that may be released from easement restrictions by MALPF under specified circumstances;
• HB 1624 establishes a farmstead cheese Laboratory Testing Fund; authorizes the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) to establish a five-year pilot farmstead cheese program and authorizes the DHMH secretary to issue up to five milk processor-farmstead cheese producer permits under the pilot program; and
• HB 1166 moves poultry litter-to-energy from a Maryland renewable fuels Tier 2 classification to a Tier 1 classification, which could increase the value of chicken manure by helping create another market for it. Satterfield said if an electric production company is interested in producing electricity from poultry litter, this bill could be helpful to it by providing additional incentives. For persons owning manure, this could be another outlet for their product and it could result in additional farm income.
Ag-related bills passed during the 2008 session by the General Assembly that have not yet been signed by Gov. O’Malley, as of press time:
• SB 44 raises penalties for knowingly attending a cockfight. These birds and participants, though there should never be any interaction among them and persons in the commercial broiler chicken industry, pose a health threat to commercial chickens;
• SB 662 imposes a 25 percent surcharge on the existing agricultural land transfer tax, with most of the new revenues collected by the state going to fund the Next Generation Farmland Acquisition Program to help young farmers acquire their first farms and preserve additional acres of farmland. The bill also enables the MALPF to make additional farmland protection easement purchases over the next few years through the use of installment purchase agreements; and
• HB 1481 authorizes the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners to issue a license to an animal control facility to administer specified drugs to sedate or euthanize animals.