Waiting in the wings is the Farm Bill.....

Waiting in the wings is the Farm Bill; I know, you don't own a farm so why should you be concerned?


Consider what follows:
If the Farm Bill is not passed this session this is what will happen:

The current death/inheritance tax is 35% on property over $5 million.

If nothing is done, it will increase to 55% on property over $1 million.

For those family farms located next to large metropolitan areas such as Charlotte, Raleigh, and Wilmington the property values are MUCH higher then ours, not even taking into account that 1 piece of machinery can cost anywhere from One hundred thousand to upwards of 1 million and several pieces are needed for the entire operations. Then if you look at the acreage these farms must possess to make a profit, one can easily lose their farm altogether! IF something is not done in this lame duck session, all who have worked so hard, some working 365 days a year sun up to sun down planning to leave their way of life to their children, all will be lost. Families are already having a hard time of it with the way it stands now! We will be saying good-bye to the smaller family owned farms once and for all because they will sell the equipment and land to pay the taxes.

All of this is not to mention that taxes were paid when the farms were purchased, taxes were paid when the equipment was purchased, each year property taxes are paid on the equipment and land, out buildings and grain bins, tobacco barns and lean-to's, year after year......then when they die it gets one giant tax again and then to be taxed to the next owner.......this is MORE THEN double taxation....!

Farmers do not set their own pricing, the commodity market does. If prices are down, they run risks of not making ends meet and this happens more often then we ever imagined.

If you were to look at Craven County through Congressional Districts 1 and 3 here are the Agriculture Stats:

Dist.1-
19% of all jobs
6.0 BILLION in impact
23% of District GDP
3rd highest district GDP in the state
4th highest in Ag employment

Dist. 3-
20% of jobs
16% of district GDP
6 BILLION in impact
4th highest district GDP in the state
3rd in Ag employment

Craven county as a whole is tied for 5th place in Ag Economic Impact which is NC's #1 industry and 99% of NC farms are family owned!

The "sale" of these lands turning them into residential areas will require water, sewer, electrical (utility hook-ups), more city and county personnel...(law enforcement etc.) to manage these areas as populations increase. As the government manpower and services increase, SO DOES OUR TAXATION!

Farmland is beneficial in so many ways, the obvious food, fiber and forestry it supplies, the lack of government needed to manage it, and the inclusion it provides for our military in practicing maneuvers & flyovers-(the military is NC's 2nd biggest industry!). Governments think more housing, more taxpayers, ....but the truth is, open spaces save taxpayers!

Finally, Food security is important to national security in many ways.....when we (or a portion of the country) is unable to grow food due to natural disasters, most recently droughts, we depend on other parts of the country supplying us and visa-versa. When no-one is able to meet the demand it puts or dependence once again on other countries, you see how well that is working with oil don't you?!

Lastly, Only 210,000 Americans are responsible for EIGHTY PERCENT of the US Ag Production. By the year 2050 the projected population for the planet is 9 BILLION. These 210,000 people are our only lifeline to feeding the generations to come!

Statistical information is available through the NC Farm Bureau

Source: USDA/NASS and Dr. Mike Walden, NCSU

YOU can make a difference by contacting:

Senator Richard Burr
Ph:  202-224-3154; Fax:  Fax: (202) 228-2981

217 Russell Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC 20510


Senator Kay Hagan
Ph:  202-224-6342; Fax:  202-228-2563

521 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC District 3)
Ph: 202-225-3415; Fax: 202-225-3286

2333 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

G.K. Butterfield (NC District 1)
Ph:  202-225-3101; Fax: (202) 225-3354

2305 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Ask them to pass the FARM BILL!!  Remember phone calls are good, written letters have even more impact!

A Message from Americans for Prosperity of NC

This week, the Senate will begin consideration of S. 3240, the massive farm bill that sets agriculture and food policy. Like its predecessors, the 2012 farm bill is shaping up to be nothing more than a big handout to agri-businesses.


This farm bill continues Washington’s reckless, runaway spending. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Senate farm bill will cost $969 billion over the next decade. We simply can’t afford to continue such out-of-control spending.

Although S. 3240 repeals some of the current price and income support programs, it replaces them with new programs that essentially do the same thing. Under the proposed “shallow-loss” program, Congress would guarantee that a crop producer’s revenues will never drop below 90% of the average revenues they received over the previous five years—a program that will be especially expensive given the high prices for commodities like corn and soy beans in recent years.

The bill also spends more on other subsidies. It provides unlimited funds for crop insurance, and it greatly expands funding for agricultural research and development.

The federal government should not be in the business of guaranteeing people’s income or providing lavish subsidies for agri-businesses. For a more on the Senate farm bill check out AFP’s recent letter of opposition.

And be sure to keep the heat on your representatives in Congress to cut wasteful farm subsidies!

CAGW PORKER OF THE MONTH: US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Porker of the Month for asserting in a television interview on August 16 that the Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, qualifies as “an economic stimulus,” explaining that “every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity.” Sec. Vilsack’s claims ignited outrage from many members of the political news media and blogosphere, several of whom compared the remarks to Senate Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) July, 2010 claim that unemployment insurance “creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative” and to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney’s August 10, 2011 statement that extending unemployment benefits will create “up to a million” jobs. “We are entering a brave new world for economics,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “If one takes the ludicrous analyses of prominent Democrats seriously, it is a shame that millions more Americans do not qualify for SNAP benefits. Indeed, the best course of action going forward would be to extend SNAP to all Americans, even affluent ones with huge salaries. That seems to be the administration’s pro-growth strategy.” For attempting to convince taxpayers that the road to prosperity is paved with food stamps, Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack is CAGW’s August, 2011 Porker of the Month.

Read more about the Porker of the Month.

http://www.cagw.org/newsroom/porker-of-the-month/

Forty Acres & a Mule -- Sherrod Style?

Forty Acres & a Mule -- Sherrod Style?