Legislative roundup
By DICK WANNER
HARRISBURG - Lots of
behind the scenes action this
week m the Capitol as the
Department of Agriculture,
the Department of Public
Welfare and the Department
of Justice all took careful
looks at House Bill 1535, a
lands management bill,
which would transfer
responsibility for state
owned farmland from
Welfare to Agriculture.
HARRISBURG - The
number of eligible fanners
who registered to vote in the
upcoming beef referendum
totalled 9790 on Thursday
morning, reported Richard
Pennay, Agricultural
Program Specialist for the
Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Service.
The registration penod
officially closed Wednesday
afternoon.
Although their normal
records management
system required them to
discard the 1977 referendum
files, Pennay said he feels
the turn out for this
referendum exceeded the
previous one.
The county with the
largest number of
registrants was Lancaster
County, with 479 cattle
USDA seeks to change
foreign disclosure act
WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Proposed changes in
regulations governing the
Agricultural Foreign In
vestment Disclosure Act
which would alter the
reporting requirement for
foreign investors-were
announced Friday by Ray
Fitzgerald, administrator of
the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Agricultural
Stabilization and Con
servation Service.
Fitzgerald said one change
would raise from five to
twenty percent the
aggregate foreign interest in
a company. That would
constitute “significant in
terest or substantial con
trol,” and make clear that
when regulations refer to a
“combination,” they mean
only a group of individuals or
Kennedy to manage
local soybean office
HEBRON, Md. - Jerry
Kennedy of Hebron,
Maryland, has been named
field services regional
manager by the American
Soybean Association ac
cording to Jeffrey W. Gam,
ASA executive director of
Government Relations and
Field Services.
In bis new position,
Kennedy will assist state
soybean associations and
promotion boards in their
activibes and programs.
Welfare farms to transfer to PDA
Welfare farms are all just
outside state hospitals, and
for many years were tended
by patients who grew food
for the people living in the
hospitals.
Court rulings over the past
decade have virtually
eliminated stoop labor
therapy, and the Welfare
farms are now being run out
of a department headed by a
Lancaster Co, highest in state
Beeferendum
registration
nears 10,000
owners. The next highest
number was in Franklin
County, where 375 people
signed up to vote.
Pennay noted the big days
were Monday through
Wednesday of this week,
even though the registration
penod began on January 28.
“In Lancaster County, for
example, there were less
than 100 registered last
Friday, and now there are
close to 500,” Pennay added.
Most of those who
registered to vote m the
Beeferendum requested to
use the mail ballots. Pennay
said the county ASCS offices
are busy getting ready to
send out the ballots and the
rules for the voting penod of
February 19-22.
Several other county totals
governments who are acting
in concert.
The other change would
generally exempt all
agricultural, forestry and
timber land not exceeding 10
acres in the aggregate from
reporting requirements.
However, if products grown
on these under-10-acre tracts
yield annual gross sales of
more than $lOOO, the land
must be reported to ASCS,
Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said the public
is invited to comment on the
proposals which appeared in
the January 25 Federal
Register. Deadline for
submitting written com
ments is March 25.
Comments should be
addressed to the ad
ministrator, USDA-ASCS,
Room 218-W, P.O. Box 2415,
Washington, D.C. 20013.
The newly created
regional office will be
located in Salisbury,
Maryland, and will work
with soybean organizations
in Delaware, Maryland,
North Carolina, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Kennedy assumed his
dubes with the American
Soybean Association last
Friday.
secretary, Helen O’Bannon,
who thinks they’d be better
placed with the secretary of
agriculture.
Governor Thornburgh is in
agreement with his welfare
chief, and so is Secretary of
Agriculture Penrose
Hallowell. It will be a com
plicated transfer involving
thousands of acres, millions
of dollars worth of equip
ment and buildings, and 135
state employees, most of
are: Berks - 320; Lebanon -
169; Dauphin -104; Chester -
110; Adams - 207; York - 300;
Cumberland - 213; Butler -
223; Bradford - 210; and
Washington - 297. SM. *■
whom are members of the
American Federation of
State and Municipal
Employees
Agriculture has also an
nounced its willingness to ac
cept any lands deemed
surplus by the Department
of Justice, which operates
farms m conjunction with a
number of the state prisons.
Justice’s farm chief,
Robert Williams, does not
believe they will be declar
ing any lands surplus. And
while he feels the Welfare
farms might be better plac
ed with the Department of
Agriculture, he does not
believe the prison farms,
with their convict labor
force, should be taken out of
the Department of Justice.
Noxious Weed Bill
A Grange supported
measure which has yet to be
assigned a bill number
would simplify the
mechanism for pinning nox
ious weed labels on really
troublestome plant pests.
Presently, the legislature
must approve and the gover
nor roust sign noxious weed
legislation.
That is a cumbersome
system, at best, and pro
bably accounts for the fact
that only one weed, Canada
thistle, holds the solitary
distinction of being an of
ficial public enemy.
State Grange Master
Charles Wismer would like
to see multiflora rose and
johnsongrass added to that
list. Incredibly enough,
Wismer said, the Penn
sylvania Game Commission
is still selling multiflora rose
plants for use as wildlife
shelters.
A casual observer’s im
pressions of state govern
ment as slow and unwieldly
could have been shattered in
a meeting on Monday m the
office of Senate Ag Commit
tee chairman Pat Stapleton.
The meeting was
hghtmng-fast and efficient.
It opened at noon and ad
journed ten minutes later
after the committee
members present had voted
to put on the floor of the
Senate three different bills.
They were:
Clean and Green
House Bill 725 would
amend Act 319, the Clean
and Green Act, to allow
preferential tax treatment to
continue when forest or
farmland is divided for sale
as long as the parcels sold
continue in open space uses.
The measure passed the
House by a vote of 164 to 5 on
October 31.
Alien Ownership
HB 1778 would restrict the
acquisition of farmland by
non-citizens. Neither alien
nor foreign governments
could aqure an interest in
any agricultural land ex
ceeding 100 acres. Passed
the House on December 5 by
185 to 4 vote.
Inheritance Taxes
HB 1176 would amend Act
319, Clean and Green again,
to allow use value assess
ment, rather than market
value, at the time an estate
is settled It would provide
safeguards to insure that the
land would continue in
agriculture. Passed the
House on October 23 by 140 to
42 vote.