New York Farm Bureau released its 2016 state priorities Jan. 27 that focus on improving conditions in New York state to allow for agricultural growth.
New York Farm Bureau President Dean Norton laid out the legislative agenda during a press conference call with the media that included NYFB’s Public Policy Director Jeff Williams.
The number one issue for New York Farm Bureau this year is to strongly oppose the $15 minimum wage. The plan would dramatically impact farms competitiveness and cost farmers an estimated $500 million in additional annual labor costs alone. That would be crushing in a year like this one, when milk and commodity prices are significantly lower.
 |
| New York Farm Bureau members let Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the rest of the state Legislature know they are against the $15 an hour minimum wages. Back row left to right are Chris Kelder, Darin Hickling, Dean Casey, Patrick McCormick, Jake Schieferstine, Richard Kimball and Robert Nolan. In front, left to right, holding Assembly banner is David Fisher, John Sorbello and Phyllis Couture, holding governor banner is New York Farm Bureau President Dean Norton and Vice President Eric Ooms, and holding the Senate banner are Paul Fouts, Alex Wright and Ashur Terwilliger. |
Other expenses will come from increased costs for goods and services that farms must purchase.
“The governor’s minimum wage proposal makes New York completely uncompetitive with the other agricultural states,” Norton said. “When Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is $7.25 and New York’s is $15, how can our farms and other businesses compete? The answer, unfortunately, is to reduce labor costs or shut down.”
Norton added New York Farm Bureau will hold lawmakers accountable on this issue, and remind its members of how their representatives voted. The minimum wage proposal is part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget plan.
State funding for critical farm programs is also a top priority for New York Farm Bureau. The governor included a number of items in his budget plan to help the farm industry, including money for the Environmental Protection Fund, which will assist farms with water quality, conservation and farmland protection programs.
New York Farm Bureau also remains committed to securing money to assist schools in starting up new FFA programs as well as for agricultural education programs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates there will be 60,000 new jobs a year in the farming and food industries, and the state will need to have a workforce ready to meet those demands to help grow the industries right here at home.
“We have an abundance of school districts looking to add chapters and this funding would help get those chapters off the ground and started,” said Norton.
A third priority related to the budget is the investment in roads and bridge for upstate New York. The governor is committing $20 billion to match infrastructure efforts happening in and around New York City. The parity in upstate-downstate funding remains a priority because our farms need access to good roads and safe bridges in order to transport their goods to market.
“Many of the bridges that cross the Erie Canal are no longer accessible to agricultural equipment and vehicles because of the weight limit and restrictions,” said Norton. “This increases time and costs for farmers who may have to travel miles out of their way to get to a farm field or deliver milk.”
Another new priority for our members this year is support for transferring farm assessment functions from the Department of Taxation and Finance to the Department of Agriculture and Markets.
Agricultural land assessments are determined by Agriculture and Markets under Agricultural District Law. However, when it comes to administering the assessments, it falls to Tax and Finance, which can create some confusion for assessors not well versed in Agriculture District Law.
Moving the process to be entirely housed within the Department of Agriculture and Markets will not only streamline the process, but it would be a common sense move to improve a valuable program for our farms.
“There is a real sensitivity and understanding of our industry in the Department of Agriculture and Markets and we feel that assessment program and functions would be much better served in that department rather than Taxation and Finance,” said Williams, NYFB’s public policy director.
Finally, energy is another major priority for New York Farm Bureau. Reducing costs and increasing efficiencies for farms, while also helping farms transition to renewable energy sources, provide many benefits for agriculture.
The governor’s initiative, known as Reforming the Energy Vision or REV, is looking to be a more market-based plan than current energy policy incentives. In the past, the New York State Energy Research Development Authority has worked with farms to open up opportunities for solar, wind energy and biomass as well as increasing the use of anaerobic digesters on dairy farms. The digesters convert animal nutrients into electricity that is returned to the grid.
New York Farm Bureau will work this year to ensure REV is implemented in a fair and effective way so that rural New York is able to take advantage of the programs available, and farms can contribute to a more resilient grid and power their neighborhoods.
“We are watching this process very closely, because at the end of the day, we want to make sure that farms who want to employ more renewable energy technologies are making out equally in rate pricing and that their efforts are economically viable,” said Williams. “At this time, we don’t know how this will impact farms or rate payers.”
New York Farm Bureau establishes its priorities every year beginning at the grassroots level. Members of 52 county Farm Bureaus voice their opinions and vote on public policy resolutions at the county level. Those make their way to State Annual Meeting in December where delegates cast their votes that determine the organization’s positions on legislative issues. The State Board of Directors then established the priorities.
No comments:
Post a Comment