Menu

Ohio farmers will benefit from passage of the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Strength) Act, which President Bush signed in late October. The bill protects farm exports from high European tariffs, eliminates the penalty on Ohio for using ethanol and enacts the tobacco buyout program. It also makes it easier for farmers to average their income to lower taxes and reduces capital gains taxes when livestock sales are forced by bad weather. Also in the bill are agriculture-specific tax incentives for renewable fuels including biodiesel and ethanol, which will increase demand for these farm-grown products.

"Some of these things, we’ve been working on for years," said Keith Stimpert, OFBF’s vice president, government affairs. While commenting on its passage, Stimpert cited the actions of Farm Bureau volunteers who made sure legislators knew how important this bill was to Ohio farmers.

While the export and tobacco provisions were very important, the elimination of the ethanol penalty brings to a close a battle Farm Bureau has fought for years. The ethanol penalty had cost Ohio between $130 and $160 billion annually in lost road improvement money. Previously, Ohio’s share of the federal highway trust fund was reduced because our state uses a comparatively large amount of ethanol; ethanol was taxed at a lower rate than unleaded gasoline and thus generated lower trust fund payments to the state.

Caption: Grassroots lobbying by committed farmers helps lawmakers understand the real-world impact of decisions reached in congress. Here, Representative Mike Turner of Dayton (l) hears from Farm Bureau leaders who visited with him in his Washington DC office.