By Blake
Hurst
“Oh, the line
forms on the right, babe, now that Macky's back in town,” Mack the
Knife.
Yes, they’re back
in town, both in Jefferson City and Washington, D.C. The Missouri Legislature
and the U.S. Congress have started new sessions, and Missouri Farm Bureau has a
list of priority issues that have been identified by our members. Yep, and I
suppose we tend to line up on the right, or at least on the right side of the
issues that concern our members.
In Jefferson City, we’ll be
working on initiative petition reform. Missouri voters need access to
information on both sides of ballot proposals, like voters have in most other
states with the ballot initiative process. Proposed legislation provides for a
public comment period and public hearing and requires more information to be
posted online, according to Missouri Farm Bureau’s director of state and local
affairs, Leslie Holloway. We’ve got support from other citizen groups, including
the REA and the Chamber of Commerce, and we think we have a great chance of
passing this needed legislation.
We’re also
working to guarantee Missouri farmers’ right to raise livestock. Animal rights
activists have attempted to restrict production agriculture in various ways in
several states. We support a proposed constitutional amendment protecting the
rights of farmers and ranchers to conduct agricultural production
activities.
In Washington
D.C., we’ll be working to pass a farm bill. Or like Yogi Berra might say, “It’s
déjà vu all over again.” The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (aka the
farm bill) expired last September and was finally extended until September 30 of
this year in the fiscal cliff legislation. All the work done last year on the
new farm bill was for naught.
Since this is a
new Congress, we’ll have to start all over again. Not only that, but we’re sure
to have less money in the budget for farm programs. That’s bad news for
everybody in agriculture, but especially bad news for dairy producers, who had
worked hard to get a new dairy program included in both the House and Senate
versions of the farm bill.
There is some
good news. For the first time in 12 years, we won’t be working on estate tax
reform legislation. Now, that doesn’t mean we’ve given up on our goal of
repealing the estate tax, but rather that Congress has finally voted on a
permanent estate tax. We’d still like to see repeal, but at least farmers have
certainty and the ability to plan.
We’ll still be
working to protect farmers from interpretations of the Clean Water Act that
would be very harmful to agriculture, and we’ll work to roll back burdensome
regulations wherever we can.
Most
importantly, we’ll work to bring some sanity to the budget situation in
Washington. We can’t continue to spend like we have been, and none of us can
afford to pay the taxes necessary to support our present federal government.
Tough decisions will have to be made in the very near future to improve the
financial situation of our nation. Farmers and ranchers often have to make those
kinds of decisions to protect our businesses and families, and we expect nothing
less of our nation’s leaders.
(Blake Hurst, of Westboro,
Mo., is the president of Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm
organization.)
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