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Farm Bill funding

U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, has promised to return the funding level for mandatory agriculture programs to what Congress approved in last year's farm bill. Nussle wants to see that funding is restored during the House-Senate conference on the fiscal 2004 budget resolution.

Prior to Nussle’s promise, the House passed a 2004 budget resolution that cut farm bill spending by $18.6 billion, or about 10 percent, over the next 10 years.

Farm Bureau recognizes that Congress must pass fiscally responsible legislation and work to reduce the federal budget deficit. But to place the burden of balancing the budget on the "backs of hardworking farmers and ranchers would be kicking them when they are already down," said AFBF President Bob Stallman.

OFBF participated in a special fly-in to Washington to lobby for preserving farm bill funding.

The Ohio House has completed its work on the state’s next biennial budget by proposing to spend $48.7 billion dollars in fiscal years 2004 and 2005. By comparison, the current two-year budget is $44.5 billion.

The centerpiece of this legislation is a 20 percent increase in the state sales tax. The tax would move to 6 cents on the dollar up from the current 5 cents over the two-year life of the budget. But the House bill also offers an alternative. If voters in November approve a plan to allow video lottery terminals at Ohio’s horse racing tracks, the second year of the sales tax increase will be eliminated.

Additionally, various types of service industries will now be required to collect sales taxes. Examples of previously exempt services include dry cleaners, storage facilities, snow removal, towing and others.

Throughout the budget process, Ohio Farm Bureau has been encouraging lawmakers to cut spending before raising taxes to balance the state’s finances. The House plan falls far short of that according to Scott Williams, OFBF’s director of state legislative affairs.

"The business coalition had a lot of ideas on how to save money. A lot of (those) cuts didn’t make it into the bill. We’re looking to find out what happened."

Williams said most state programs received flat funding or small increases in the House plan. The exception is higher education. "Back in the 1980s we balanced the budget on the back of higher education. It looks like the state’s going to try to do that again."

Williams said OFBF is hopeful the Ohio Senate will be more inclined than the House to listen to the message of fiscal restraint. "Here we are adding another $4 billion to state spending at a time when everybody’s telling us the economy is tough. We’re not sure adding that much expense to the budget is the right thing to do, especially if the only way you can do it is to raise taxes."