Friday, March 6, 2009

Volume 09, Issue 8

The following county Farm Bureaus are scheduled to visit the Statehouse next week.

Tuesday, March 10: Blackford and Rush

The past week has been very quiet at the Statehouse.  There has been no floor action on any substantive measures other than announcing the committees to which bills from the other House have been assigned.  Committee chairs have been reviewing the bills they have been assigned to determine which merit second House hearings.  In all, 448 bills and joint resolutions of the 1,354 that were introduced this year remain alive.  While Farm Bureau continues to follow the high-priority bills we have been discussing in the Dispatch over the past several weeks, we are also following a number of other bills and issues as well.  This issue is devoted to bringing you up to date on some of those.  But, please don’t think the other issues are not still important.  It is especially important that legislators need to continue to be asked by their Farm Bureau constituents to oppose SJR 1, the constitutional amendment that would legitimize the 1-2-3 caps.

BUDGET IN SEVERAL BILLS  The House version of the budget is contained in four separate bills:  HB 1001 (Rep. Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, and Senate Appropriation Committee Chair Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville) is the more traditional budget bill (with the traditional budget bill number) that appropriates about $10.2 billion for state activities for  fiscal year 2010 (from July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010);  HB 1723 (Rep. Terry Goodin, D-Austin, and Sen. Lindel Hume, D-Princeton) which appropriates nearly $7 billion for K-12 education; HB 1728 (Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, and Sen. Kenley) which appropriates $640 million of general funds and $15 million in dedicated funds to the Department of Child Services; and HB 1656 (Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, and Sen. Kenley) which addresses state and local highway funding and does so by appropriating money from the general fund, designated federal funds and the Major Moves Construction Fund.  In the property tax package of 2008, the state agreed to assume K-12 education operating budgets and certain welfare costs previously funded by local property taxes.  These are the new expenses addressed in HB 1723 and HB 1728.  The highway funding bill was crafted in the House at the same time the federal economic stimulus plan was being put together in Washington.  With the exception of the long-term projects in the highway bill, the House has forwarded to the Senate spending bills that address only a single year of Indiana’s traditional two-year budget.

AGRICULTURAL BILLS  A number of bills dealing with agriculture remain alive.  Among these are:

• HB 1191 (Rep. Pearson and Sen. Gard) would require the State Chemist to establish an education and certification program for commercial applicators and transporters of fertilizer or for those who apply or transport manure from a regulated livestock facility.  The bill would also allow the State Chemist to impose civil penalties for violations of the commercial fertilizer law.  Farm Bureau supports this bill in its current form.

• HB 1218 (Rep. Pearson and Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette) provides that when the Grain Indemnity Fund is at or below $10 million, producer premiums may be reinstated.  If premiums are reinstated, the bill provides that they be collected through June 30 in the year in which the fund reaches $15 million.  The Grain Indemnity Fund was established in 1996 to protect grain producers in the event of a grain buyer's financial failure.  Farm Bureau supports this bill.

• HB 1217 (Rep. Pearson and Sen. Alting) makes some technical changes in the administration of the Corn Market Development Fund that was authorized by the General Assembly in 2007.  The bill will not change either the purpose of the Corn Market Development Fund nor the amount of the voluntary contributions from producers which provide it with funding.  The changes are supported by the Indiana Corn Marketing Council’s board of directors and Farm Bureau.

• HB 1524 (Rep. Terry Goodin and Sen. Jim Lewis, D-Charlestown) would update the law regarding the Indiana Egg Board.  Under the bill, the egg board would be able to periodically set its fees rather than return to the General Assembly for legislative approval.  Farm Bureau supports this bill.

• HB 1204 (Rep. Bob Bischoff, D-Lawrenceburg, and Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn) provides that unspent funds in the Clean Water Indiana soil and water conservation program do not revert to the state’s general fund at the end of the fiscal year.  Farm Bureau feels this is consistent with the purpose of the Clean Water Indiana program and supports the bill.

• SB 359 (Sen. Marlin Stutzman, R-LaGrange, and Rep. Cheatham) establishes a definite date by which either a landlord or a tenant must give notice if they do not intend to renew a year-to-year lease of farm ground.  The date currently in the bill is Oct. 1 although there has been some suggestion that Sept. 1 would be a better date.  This provision applies only to year-to-year leases (the legal term for oral lease agreements) and can be changed in a written lease.  Farm Bureau supports this bill but encourages all parties to put their agreements dealing with farm ground in writing.

• SB 271 (Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, and Rep. Pearson) would change the procedure for a fee increase for the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Purdue.  The request would still be originated by the Board of Animal Health but would require the approval of the Purdue treasurer rather than the Board of Trustees.  The bill would also prohibit the use of ADDL fees to pay faculty salaries.

• HB 1118 (Rep. Dick Dodge, R-Pleasant Lake, and Sen. Stutzman) started out as a bill to require the state to honor the partition fence law on any of its properties.  To get the bill out of committee and keep it alive, Rep. Dodge – with the agreement of Farm Bureau – amended it to read that if the state wants a fence, it cannot require an adjoining landowner to pay for half of it.  Farm Bureau will continue to work on this bill in the Senate to see if we can restore it to its original language.

• HB 1483 (Rep. Don Lehe, R-Brookston, and Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Wheatfield) would make it legal to operate a motorized farm wagon on county roads to move from field to field.  It prohibits the operation of such wagons on interstates and allows them to cross, but not travel along, state highways.

• SB 222 (Sen. Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte, and Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond) would make killing a domestic animal or livestock a Class D felony, if it is done intentionally without the consent of the animal’s owner.  It provides that an affirmative defense to this law is that it was necessary to kill the animal to protect a person or property (including another animal).  Farm Bureau supports this bill as it will provide law enforcement officials a tool to prosecute those who intentionally kill livestock.  Our support of this bill is conditioned upon it being a stand-alone piece of legislation.  We will not support it as a part of an animal rights Christmas tree bill.

UTILITY & ENERGY BILLS  Space constraints prevent us from addressing a number of bills dealing with energy and utilities in this issue of the Dispatch.  Among the topics addressed in these bills are ethanol, other forms of renewable energy and broadband buildout into rural areas.  These will be discussed in an upcoming edition of the Dispatch.