VOL. 25 No. 13
Delegates to the 1980 Pennsylvania Farmers Union Convention this week
pondered questions of milk security and land use planning. Four new counties,
Dauphin, Westmoreland, Wyoming-Sullivan, and Crawford-Venango were
granted charters.
Wenger pushes Mock tax exemption
BY DICK WANNER *
HARRISBURG - Penn
sylvania’s capital stock
franchise tax is discouraging
family farmers who might
benefit by incorporating
their farms, according to
Noah Wenger.
Wenger himself a Lan
caster County farmer, is
vice chairman of the Penn
sylvania House of
Representatives agriculture
committee and the prime
sponsor of a House bill which
would exempt closely-held
family farm corporations
from the tax.
The bill, House Bill 1608,
has been lodged m the House
Dairy security proposals
awash, in confusion
HARRISBURG - After
struggling throughout drafts
°f milk security fund
proposals, legislators admit
they are back to ground zero.
None of the drafts to date
a re acceptable to the
lawmakers. And the struggle
among members of various
tactions to have their
proposals made law is not
easing the job.
“We’re farther away now
than we were three years
ago,” a legislative aide to
State Senator Patrick
Stapleton said Thursday
evening.
The frustration on all sides
was evident after a week of
intensive meetings between
lawmakers and co-ops,
dealers, farm organizations,
and fhe Agriculture
Department.
The talks only served to
emphasize differences.
Legislative roundup
"Appropriations Committee
since Nov. 27, but Wenger
said Thursday he hopes it
will get out of the committee
soon, and onto the floor of the
House for debate and voting.
In its initial form, Wenger
said, the bi|l had met with
the approval of the state
Department of Agriculture,
but the Department of
Revenue resisted the
measure because it would
reduce the amount of money
coming into the state
treasury.
Wenger said, though, that
revenue officials were in
sistent on closing potential
Legislators say the co-op
-proposal is unacceptable. It
calls for dealers to pay the
entire two cent per cwt load
to establish a fund. Co-ops,
even processmg co-ops,
would pay nothing.
The Secretary of
Agriculture’s penny per cwt
plan does not seem to be the
answer, either. Legislators
don't have the sentiment to
force large dealers to pay
into a fund when they could
obtain protection under a
bond for much less.
If the co-ops stay out of the
bonding agreement, and the
big dealers obtain alternate
credit, the fund, built by
small dealers, may rise by
only a few hundred thousand
dollars a year, legislators
said.
Representative Reno
Thomas, a hog breeder,
pointed out he gets paid for
Lancaster tanning, Saturday, January 26, 1960
loopholes that would have
horse racing farms
- to qualify for the exemption.
Other farms which would
not be exempt under the
proposed-legislation would
be fish, fur, and game
operations.
How many farms would a
repeal of the tax affect?
“Right now, except in very
rare instances, we tell our
clients' to just forget about
incorporating,” siad
Richard Dennison, manager
of Pennsylvania Fanners
Association Farm
Management Business
Analysis Service. “The tax is
pigs within 48 hours.
Dairymen, he said, are the
only ones with drawn-out
payment problems.
A proposal for prompt
payment was dismissed by a
spokesman for the six
Pennsylvania dairy co-ops.
He said the co-ops did not
even want to talk about it,
they wanted to discuss their
plan.
But John York, vice
president of Lehigh Valley
Co-op, one of the six, in
dicated in a separate in
terview at about the same
time that he thought Lehigh
would support such a
proposal.
Representatives of all
major farm organizations
said they felt prompt
payment was not feasible.
All basically support the co
op proposal.
(Turn to Pace A 35)
PFU adopts resolutions
on dairy, land use
BYCURTHARLER
CAMP HILL Delegates
to Pennsylvania Fanners
Union’s Eighth Annual
Convention adopted policy
favoring a land preservation
plan similar to that proposed
in „ Lancaster by H.H.
Haverstick.
They also approved a milk
security fund proposal
similar to that urged by
dany cooperatives and acted
on several other farm
related issues.
About 200 delegates from
across the state met m Camp
Hill Monday and Tuesday.
While Haverstick’s name
a major sumbling block to
incorporation, and it closes
off one viable avenue to
family farm preservation.”
The stock tax is levied
annually on the value of the
total assets of a corporation,
whether those assests are
owned outright or mor
tgaged. Only two other
states have a similar tax,
Dennison noted.
In Pennsylvania, affected
farmers are out from $2500
to $7500 a year, and
sometimes more.
Of FMBAS’s 4000 farmers
clients, Dpnmson said, only a
few would profit from in
corporation, probably
around five percent. But as
the economy continues to
grow, and as federal taxes
continue to take bigger bites
out of smaller dollars, the
pressure to incorporate
should get stronger in the
years ahead, he believes.
According to the Depart
ment of Revenue, exempting
closely held family farm
corporations from stock tax
would cost the treasury
s6oo,ooato $700,000 a year.
“But that is a minimal tax
loss,” Dennison pointed out,
“when you compare the
value of farm production
that we could be protecting if
the tax were removed. ”
In this issue
SECTION A: Editorials, 10; Dauphin DHIA, 18;
Franklin Holstein Club, 20; Montgomery DHIA, 22;
Lanc.-York Veg Growers, 24; Berks corn awards, 30;
Dechant interview, 36.
SECTION B: Adams County DHIA, 2; Pros and cons
on Beeferendum, 4 and 5; York County com growers, 6.
SECTION C; Homestead notes, 2; Home on theßange,
8; Joyce Bupp, 12; Exclusive interview with AFBF
president, 18; Philadelphia hog show, 22; Del. pork All-
American, 31.
SECTION D: The Milk Check, 3; Lancaster DHIA, 4;
-Blair DHIA, 8; Exclusive interview with National
Grange Master, 10; No grain catastrophe, 19.
At annual meeting
was deleted from the
original land policy
proposal, delegates voted to
favor “elimination of capital
gams tax, inheritance taxes,
and real estate transfer
taxes when deed restrictions
limit the use of property for
farming.”
The statement was
sponsored by the Lancaster
County delegation.
Delegates said they
supported a producers
security fund to be
established by contributions
from dealers.
They said contributions
should not exceed two cents
per cwt. They asked the fund
be built to the value of milk
purchased by the largest
dealer in his highest 60 day
period.
They did ask co-ops be
obliged to participate on
What’s the beef
on referendum?
LITITZ Cattlemen had
best sit up and take notice to
the 1980 beef referendum
that’s just around the cor
ner. It’s time to put down the
feed bucket and the pitch
fork and pick up the paper.
Time is running out to get
the facts about the program
known as the Beeferendum.
Since last November,
Lancaster Farming has been
covermg the cattlemen’s
program proposed to “take
charge” of their industry. If
you missed th'ie articles,
this week’s issue will be
featuring a special pros and
cons section; showing both
sides of the same story.
So, read the issues; and
try to answer, in your own
mind, what you feel should
be done.
More facts and in
formation can be obtained
through the local
Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Service or
by writing for a copy of the
order to: Beef Research and
Information Order,
$7.00 Per Yeai
milk purchased from non
members.
They also said defaulting
dealers should have licenses
withdrawn and the licenses
should continue to be
withheld as long as the
dealer is in default.
PFU recommended at
least two farmers who
derive 75 percent of their
income from farming be
appointed to serve on the
state'Game Commission.
They recommended a
Pennsylvania Conservation
Program with cost shares at
a minimum of 90 percent on
all practices mandated by
the Soil Erosion and
Sedimentation Act, EPA, or
DER.
A proposal by Lancaster
County to approve a
graduated land tax was
(Turn to Pact A 39)
Livestock, Poultry. Grain,
and Seed Division, AMS,
Room 2610-S, USDA,
Washington, D.C.
Once you have the facts,
take it one step further.
Register to vote, whether
yea or nay, from next
Monday to Wednesday,
February 6. Registration
must be done by contacting
the local ASCS office in your
county, either.in person or
by telephone.
If you don’t register, you’ll
be left out in the cold during
the voting period between
Tuesday, February 19 and
Friday, February 22.
Notice, you’ll have eight
days in which to register, but
only three days to vote.
ASCS points out that the
voting will be done by secret
ballot; no signature is,
needed in the 1980 rules. If
you owned cattle last year,
you are eligible to vote, as
long as the Cattle were not
solely for slaughter.
The Beeferendum is an
important issue. It’s a
government program, which
doesn’t automatically make
it all bad; it’s going to cost
money, coming out of the
producers bank roll; but, it
will also promote beef and
develop new markets
through information and
education, if handled
correctly.
So, rememberthe three
R’s . . . read, register, and
return your ballot to make
your vote count in this
controversial referendum.
S.M.