AnnuAl meeting delegates said they want local elevators to accept aflatoxin test results from USDA-approved testing facilities. ..........................................4
A HigHligHt of last week’s annual meeting was a presentation by one of the Illinois Farm Families field moms, a Chicago area mother of two. ................................8
implements oF husbandry always are required to h a ve a s l o w m o v i n g ve h i c l e emblem attached, but there also are other requirements. .............16
Monday, December 10, 2012
Two sections Volume 40, No. 49
IFB urges ‘well-thought,’ growth-oriented fiscal plan BY MARTIN ROSS FarmWeek
As House leaders and President Obama continued to haggle over the terms of a “fiscal cliff ” solution, Illinois Farm Bureau delegates last week warned of the potentially dire consequences of a fiscal cliffhanger. At IFB’s annual meeting in Chicago, members called on Congress and the White House to craft a “fair, predictable, and well-thought long-term approach” to fiscal policy. The president last week rejected House Speaker John Boehner’s latest bid to head off potentially severe budget cuts and expiration of key federal tax measures in January. In a general resolution forwarded to the president and the Illinois congressional delegation, IFB delegates recommended a fiscal solution that involves significant federal spending cuts “and encourages economic growth, resulting in revenue growth through an expansion of the tax base.” Farmers urged policymakers to retain the soon-to-expire $5 million personal estate tax exemption, indexed to inflation and with a top 35 percent tax rate, “until a time when the tax can be eliminated.”
Illinois Farm Bureau voting delegates display their cell phones and smartphones in a show of support for an IFB action request seeking congressional extension of the current estate tax exemption and rates and existing capital gains tax rates and Section 179 expensing/bonus depreciation benefits. The gesture opened delegate policy debate last week in Chicago. (Photo by Ken Kashian)
Any fiscal cliff deal must maintain the existing 15 percent capital gains tax rate, raise the exemption under the Section 179 small business expensing option to $500,000, and continue to allow bonus depreciation of equipment, delegates argued.
Ogle County Farm Bureau President Brian Duncan, who presented the resolution, noted, “We’re very concerned about the consequences if we go over the cliff.” A drop in the estate tax exemption to $1 million would challenge “our ability to
continue intergenerational businesses,” he maintained. Section 179 and bonus depreciation provisions “stimulate equipment sales, stimulate manufacturing, stimulate economic growth,” Duncan maintained.
“We believe, ultimately, the way to resolve the debt issue is to grow the economy, create a bigger pie,” he said. “We can’t tax ourselves out of this situation. “Our concern is that things will be enacted that will be exactly the opposite of what we need. Instead of growing the economic pie, they will cause the economic pie to contract. They will exacerbate the current situation, not resolve it.” Houses divided Boehner’s latest plan reportedly offered $2.2 trillion in federal spending cuts and savings and, according to Peoria Republican Rep. Aaron Schock, answered the president’s call for $800 billion in added federal revenue over the next decade. The House Republican plan would have cut $600 billion in health care costs, $300 billion in other mandatory spending, and $300 billion in discretionary spending, and made $200 billion in revisions to the Consumer Price Index — the basis for Social Security benefit increases. Obama held to his plan to raise revenues through increased taxes on high-income Americans. Addressing IFB delegates, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a See Fiscal plan, page 5
River work could start soon Periodicals: Time Valued
IFB seeks emergency action to speed solution
Initial work to remove potential barriers to Mississippi River navigation could begin later this month, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Illinois Farm Bureau, meanwhile, is pushing to expedite remaining roadblock removal in an effort to ensure grain and goods continue to move via river this winter. Last week in Chicago, IFB delegates sought presidential “emergency action” to ensure Mississippi water levels do not fall below needed commercial navigation levels. They urged the Corps to “expedite and fully implement alternative emergency measures,” including removal of Mississippi rock “pinnacles” (jagged rocks) at Thebes and Grand Tower south of St. Louis.
The Corps is authorized to award contracts for rock blasting work at Thebes within the next few weeks. The Thebes portion of the project could begin by late December, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy told Springfield Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin Thursday. However, the Corps still needs administration approval to expedite contract bidding for rock removal at Grand Tower, Corps officials reported. Under its guiding Missouri River Master Water Control Manual, the Corps began curtailing flows from Missouri River reservoirs that feed nearly 38,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Mississippi.
FarmWeek on the web: FarmWeekNow.com
Thanks to some limited rainfall, river levels were falling at a slower rate last week, buying shippers “a few days of time,” Corps Vicksburg District spokesman Bob Anderson told FarmWeek. Drought and reduced flows affect both channel depth and width, and Waterways Council Inc. Vice President Paul Rohde told FarmWeek “we may be looking at a complete closure if we can’t address this issue.” However, Corps officials claim to need federal authorization to deviate from the master manual, and barge and ag interests are prioritizing rock removal. Two firms have been identified for See Rivers, page 3
Illinois Farm Bureau®on the web: www.ilfb.org