Productive session for
New York’s farmers as Legislature’s work ends for the year
The following statement may be attributed to NYFB President
David Fisher.
New York Farm Bureau capped off the end of the 2018 New York
State Legislative Session with a number of victories on bills it advocated for
this year. Many of the bills will have a direct benefit on the diverse range of
farms in the state. The organization’s priorities are geared towards reducing
regulatory burdens and finding solutions to the economic challenges farms
increasingly face.
In recent weeks, the legislature passed a renewal of the
10-year real property tax exemption on new farm construction, NYFB’s top
priority for the session. This helps to incentivize investment while limiting
rising property taxes based on updated agricultural assessments of the farm
property. Also, lawmakers supported a bill to modernize the assessment process
by allowing the renter of leased farmland to electronically submit the
agricultural assessment renewal application. This will simplify the annual
process, making it easier for farmers to comply.
A bill aimed at improving road safety passed in the
session’s final days. The bill would increase the speed at which a slow-moving
vehicle, with an attached slow-moving vehicle (SMV) emblem, may travel on
roadways. This legislation would help protect farm equipment drivers and the
public from accidents involving farm equipment. Modern machinery can travel
faster than 25 miles-per-hour, the current limit allowed for the use of a SMV
sign. By alerting drivers that machinery
will be going faster, but perhaps still not the posted speed limit, it can help
to prevent collisions.
The Senate also passed legislation in the final hours of
session in support of the Working Farm Protection Act that previously passed in
the Assembly. Farms in some of areas of the state, like the Hudson Valley and
Long Island, are facing major development pressure which is driving up land
prices. In turn, this makes it more difficult for new farmers to purchase
affordable farmland. This bill will
allow conservation easements to include preemptive purchase rights which would
help to ensure that working farmland could be sold at a reasonable price to
another farmer.
Two pieces of legislation that will help the craft beverage
industry also passed both chambers. The first bill will provide a six-year real
property tax exemption for newly planted hopyards. This will bring the law in
line with the same benefit provided to new vineyards and orchards. The
exemption will reduce business costs for start-up hopyards while also making it
easier to increase the hops supply to help farm breweries meet the New York
grown ingredient requirement. The other legislation will let craft beverage
makers produce and sell beer and cider infused ice cream, much like wine ice
cream that is currently allowed in New York.
The successful legislative season followed a positive budget
process that saw support for dozens of agricultural programs. This includes an
increased state reimbursement rate for school lunch programs that spend 30% of
their lunch budgets on New York grown, produced or processed food. New York
State is also committing $5 million to improve infrastructure at county fairs.
This year’s budget saw a nine-percent increase in funding for NY FarmNet which
is sorely needed as the service is seeing a 50% increase in calls from farmers
to help them cope with the stresses of a down farm economy. Some other budget
lines that saw additional funding include honeybee research, hops and barley
programs and support for the growing craft beverage industry. In addition, the
budget support for the Environmental Protection Fund has a real impact on
advancing conservation efforts on farms across New York.
New York Farm Bureau would like to thank all the lawmakers
who have supported legislation important to our members with special
appreciation going out to the Agriculture Committee Chairs, Senator Patty
Ritchie and Assembly member Bill Magee. They have long championed the needs of
farmers. We look forward to Governor Cuomo signing the legislation.
