Indiana Farm Bureau - Public Policy Dispatch

Friday, March 27, 2009

Volume 09, Issue 11

There are no county Farm Bureaus scheduled to visit the Statehouse at this time,

but we still encourage you to do so by contacting Pete Hanebutt, 317-692-7811

or phanebutt@ infarmbureau.org.

THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARS BUT HOLDS DOG BREEDER AMENDMENT On Tuesday morning, the House Judiciary Committee heard SB 328 (Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, and Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond) a bill that provides that a person who restrains an animal in a way that causes injury violates the animal cruelty law. It does this by amending the animal cruelty chapter of the code, which, for the most part, already excludes accepted farm management practices along with veterinary medicine, hunting, fishing, pest management, slaughterhouses and research facilities from its scope. In the committee, Rep. Lawson relinquished the chair to present a comprehensive amendment that included: The language of SB 222 (Sen. Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte, and Rep. Lawson) which would, in most circumstances, make it a felony to intentionally kill a domestic animal (including livestock) without the consent of the animal’s owner; and a revised version of the dog breeder language that passed the House as HB 1468 (Rep. Lawson and Sen. Teresa Lubbers, R-Indianapolis). There was considerable testimony both against and in favor of the bill. In an unusual twist of procedure, opponents were called on to testify before the amendment’s supporters. Although he had not seen the amendment prior to the hearing, Farm Bureau’s Bob Kraft testified against the bill stating that Farm Bureau supported those parts of the bill that were desired by law enforcement and prosecutors but felt there were too many outstanding questions regarding the dog breeder or “puppy mill” language and urged the committee to refer that portion of the bill to a summer study committee. Kraft also expressed concern that the new responsibilities assigned to the State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) would unduly stretch its already limited resources and that the fee structure in the bill would not be sufficient to support the BOAH activities.

During the hearing, a few witnesses expressed their fear that this bill is an initial effort by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to establish its animal rights agenda in Indiana. A quick look at the HSUS website confirms that HSUS does indeed have a broad policy opposing modern animal agriculture practices and is attempting to implement that policy on a state by state basis.

After some 2½ hours of testimony, the committee took no action on either the proposed amendment or on SB 328 itself. The committee will revisit the bill sometime before the April 15 deadline for bills to move out of committee. Meanwhile, HB 1468 has been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal & Civil Matters next Tuesday, March 31.

HOUSE VOTES TO ACCELERATE 1-2-3 CAPS This week, the House amended and passed SB 388 (Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, and Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City) so that the 1-2-3 property tax caps will take effect a year earlier than originally scheduled. The Senate bill deals with procedures for counties that want to impose a property tax levy for mental health or developmental disability facilities. That language remains in the bill but with the amendment offered by Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Crawford (D-Indianapoils), the full caps which were approved by the General Assembly in 2008 would take effect this year. The original 2008 legislation provides that those caps would be phased-in over two years, not taking full effect until 2010. The full caps will limit property taxes on owner occupied homes to 1% of assessed value, on farmland and rental residential property to 2%, and on farm equipment and other business property to 3%. The phase-in provides that the caps will be a half percent higher this year. Because this amendment was introduced on the floor during second reading, there was no public testimony taken on the proposal. Farm Bureau opposes the graduated caps at any level because they do discriminate against agriculture by taxing farmland and equipment at a higher rate than homeowners. The amended bill passed the House by a vote of 80-12 with most of the opposition coming from legislators who opposed the caps when they were enacted a year ago. Sen. Kenley is reported as having said that the accelerated caps would have a crippling effect on local government and that he did not expect they would be approved by the Senate.

HB 388 should not be confused with SJR 1 (Sen. Kenley and Rep. Crawford), which is the next step to amend the Constitution to make the 1-2-3 caps constitutional. If the resolution were to pass, either this year or next, the question of amending the Constitution would be put to the state’s voters in the General Election of 2010. Since Farm Bureau opposes the 1-2-3 caps, we strongly oppose the effort to legitimize them by amending the Constitution. Speaker of the House Pat Bauer (D-South Bend) has said that SJR 1 will not be given a hearing this year.

CLEAN WATER INDIANA On Monday, the Senate Natural Resources Committee heard and unanimously approved HB 1204 (Rep. Bob Bischoff, D-Lawrenceburg, and Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn) the bill that will make it absolutely clear that money in the Clean Water Indiana Fund at the end of the fiscal year does not revert back to the fund it was appropriated from. This became necessary because some of the cigarette tax revenues are appropriated to Clean Water Indiana and a question arose as to whether the current statutory ban on funds reverting to the General Fund was sufficient to protect these funds. Bob Kraft suported the bill on behalf of both Farm Bureau and the Indiana Association of Soil & Water Conservaion Districts (IASWCD).

Later that day, Farm Bureau staff together with members of the IASWCD’s Legislative Committee and IASWCD staff met with about 20 legislators to thank them for their support of HB 1204 and to urge them to keep the annual General Fund appropriation of $500,000 in the budget for the next biennium.

SENATE APPROVES PLAN TO PAY FOR JOBLESS BENEFITS On Tuesday, the Senate approved its version of HB 1379 (Rep. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, and Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn). The Senate version of this bill would increase taxes on businesses and cut payments to unemployed Hoosiers as part of a plan to address the funding shortfall in the state’s unemployment insurance fund and begin to repay about $550 million the state has borrowed from the federal government to continue unemployment benefits to its out-of-work citizens. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 30-20 with three Republicans (Mike Delph, Carmel; Brent Waltz, Greenwood; and John Waterman, Sullivan) joining the chamber’s 17 Democrats to oppose it. On Thursday, the House dissented and both Houses appointed their representatives to the conference committee. The committee will be chaired by Rep. Niezgodski and also include Rep. Dan Leonard (R-Huntington), Sen. Kruse, Sen. Karen Tallian (D-Portage) and non-voting advisors from each caucus.

Indiana law requires agricultural employers to pay who pay more than $20,000 in cash wages in a quarter or have at least 10 employees for at least part of a day in 20 different weeks during a calendar year to pay the unemployment insurance premium.

LEGISLATORS TAKE SIGNIFICANT ACTION ON AG BILLS A number of bills dealing with production were acted upon by the General Assembly during the past week. These include:

HB 1218 (Rep. Joe Pearson, D-Hartford City, and Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette) which will increase the balance that must be in the grain indemnity fund before collections are reinstated ($10 million) and the balance that must be reached before collections are suspended ($15 million). This bill was not amended in the Senate, so it will go straight to Governor Mitch Daniels for his signature.
HB 1524 (Rep. Terry Goodin, D-Austin, and Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette) which will give the State Egg Board the authority to set its fees without returning to the General Assembly was reported favorably by the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday. It has passed 2^nd reading on the Senate floor without amendment and is now awaiting final Senate action.
SB 221 (Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, and Rep. Pearson) is the bill requiring applicants for regulated livestock permits to establish that they do not have a history of environmental violations. It was amended in the House Ag Committee to include a provision that an attempt should be made to notify the owners of all property within a half-mile of the footprint of the proposed facility of the application. This was further amended on a motion by Rep. Dave Chatham (R-North Vernon) to include the occupants as well as the owners of such property. The amended bill passed the full House by a vote of 96-0 on Thursday.
SB 271 (Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, and Rep. Pearson) will remove the Purdue Board of Trustees from the rate setting hierarchy of the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) at Purdue and allow the ADDL to use fee revenues to hire staff other than faculty. This bill passed the full House on Tuesday by a vote of 93-0 without amendment, so it too is on its way to the Governor.

Farm Bureau testified in support of all of these bills as they were working their way through the legislative process.