VOL 27 N*. 6
FFA officers at Greenwood High School,
Millerstown, Perry County, proudly display
banner for the state's newest Future Farmers
of America chapter. Officers include, from the
president; Wade Server.
Inside
Hits
Week’s,.,
National 4-H Congress in Chicago again this year has drawn
to a dose as 15 members from Pennsylvania, Maryland;
Delaware and New Jersey earn national awards. Find out more
onpages,..BlB,and 824.
Two Lackawanna County daiiymefLShoot for a baker’s dozen
when it comes to high herd averages.' Read their story 0n...820.
Elco Young Farmers honor top crop, dairy-producers. See the
winners 0n...A27.
Tax reform bilk face
farmer opposition
HARRISBURG - The Penn
sylvania House Finance Com
mittee wrapped up its hearings on
the Stauffer tax reform bills this
week, according to a spokesperson
for Rep. Benjamin Wilson (R
-144th), committee chairman. The
Committee will be considering this
legislation at a meeting scheduled
for Dec. 9 at 8:30 p.m. in Room 140
of the Capitol Building.
Senate Bills 1085 and 1086, which
would replace the school property
tax with a local personal mcome
tax and a business' use or oc
cupancy tax, moved to the House
Committee m October after the
Senate passed the legislation with
a vote of 30-16. The prime sponsor
of the legislation is Senate
Majority Whip John Stauffer (R
-19th) Couhtyßepublican.
since me mus reached the House
Committee, little progress was
made in getting them passed. For,
during the second week of
November, the Committee voted
22-2 to hold public hearings on the
issue.
Committee Chairman Wilson,
who is described by the Penn
sylvania Chamber of Commerce as
a proponent of local tax shifting,
has his own set of tax reform bills
secretary; Dayid Bratton, treasurer; Raymond
McGowen, reporter; Tom Gothei, sentinel:
James Lower, chaplain; and Mike Sarver, vice
president.-
in the till House Bills 1184-1188.
It has been predicted that the
Stauffer bill will not remain intact
in the House, and will probably be
amended by Wilson and others.
Two of the three major farm
organizations have gone on record
as opposing SB 1085-1086. The
Pennsylvania State Grange sub
mitted testimony on November 18
against the Stauffer package and
the business use or occupancy tax.
“Tax reform would provide
relief to farmers and rural
property owners, but the Stauffer
bills don’t go far enough,” said a
Grange spokesperson. The State
Grange policy calls for a gr idiwl
shift from real estate taxes tor
education to net mcome tax on
personal mcome or incorporated
businesses.
Saying the tax reform proposal
would create a double burden for
the farmer, the State' Grange said
it feels farmers would have to pay
the taxes that were reduced for
landlords. And, 'taxes lost on
vacant lands or from idle farms
held by absentee landowners
would also become additional
burdens to the paying public.
“'Dus package is almost a
(Turn to Page A3B)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 5,1981
PMMB studies milk price
reversal;may appeal
BY IMNNATOMMEXLEO ,
HARRISBURG - The Penn
sylvania Milk Marketing Board
mil possibly appeal a recent
Commonwealth Court ruling
which reversed and remanded the
PMMB’s ordered price increase in
three eastern Pennsylvania
counties, Earl B. Fink, Jr, PMMB
executive secretary said Thur
sday.
Fink explained the board is still
studying the ruling, which
eliminated the proposed 12 cent
per gallon retail price hike in
Bucks, Chester and Montgomery
Counties (Area 1 Zone 2).
The PMMB can grant' an in
crease in the minimum retail
price, providing dealers present
sufficient evidence to indicate
their production costs have risen.
The Area 1 Zone 2 hearings in
cluded the testimony of four
dealers.
The unanimous decision, handed
down last week by Judge David
Craig of Pittsburgh, capped a 15-
Columns
Editorials, All); Now is the time,
All); Brockett's Ag Advice, Al 9;
That’s a good question, AJO;
Farming’s Futures, A 36; Ladies,
have you heard?, B 4; Joyce Bupp’s
Column, BIO; Ida’s Notebook, 87.
Dairy
Lancaster DHIA, D 4; Bradtord
DHIA, Dl’i; Milk Market News,
A3O; No. 1 Bed & White Herd in
PA,A22; Delaware dairymen grow
no-till corn, Alb.
Home and Youth
Homestead Notes, B 2; Home on
the Range, BO; FWS news, BS); 4-H
news, B 13; Kids’s Korner, B 12;
FFA news, BIO; Chester 4-H dairy
banquet, B 20; Farmland
Preservation, DO; Farm Safety,
BJO.
Pa. FFA welcomes
Greenwood Greenhands
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
MILLERSTOWN - Penn
sylvania welcomed its newest
Future Farmers ot America
chapter Thursday night - the 209th
throughout the Commonwealth
It’s a chapter with 30 members -
not bad tor a high school that has a
graduating class of about 60.
All the members are
Greenhands, first-year vo-ag
students, naturally.
It’s a chapter that’s gradually
adding equipment and courses of
ag-related study and FFA ac
tivities.
It’s a chapter with a busy civic
mmded farmer serving as in
structor and chapter adviser
during its first yur.
It’s a chapter that bad been
absent from the vocational
*•
majth- battle spearheaded by
consumers and lily Penn, which
operates a chain of convenience
markets in suburban Philadelphia.
Lily Penn and the consumer
group opposed the PMMB’s price
increase and appealed to the
Commenweaith Court.
The court’s ruling will probably
produce a few changes in the
PMMB’s 44-year-old price
determining system, according to
Henry Geisinger, vice president of
the Pennsylvania Association of
Milk Dealers.
“I don’t think it’s the end of milk
control,” said Geisinger, “but
there is going to be some
changes.”
Geisinger, whose group is
presently studying the court’s
ruling, said one of the changes may
be in the area of interstate
movement of milk.
“The board can’t go across the
, + s*y ' #WW§
* *y v / s ,t
agricultural scene for more than a
decade and a half and was finally
reborn Thursday night after some
three years of continuing interest
and active encouragement by a
group of Perry County fanners
and other persons
It’s the Greenwood FFA Chapter
of Greenwood High School in the
rural Perry County borough of
Millerstown.
And farmer-advisor Glenn
Cauffman expressed the chapter's
rebirth best Thursday night during
initiation ceremonies for the
Greenhand membership:
"We lack many things in our new
chapter, "he said.
“But the students overcome tins
lack of things with a wealth of
(TumtoPagaASO
state line end ask to see figures,"
Geisinger explained.
According to a spokeswoman
from Judge Craig’s office, the
interstate and inter-zone
movement of milk was a
significant factor in the court’s
decision.
The board report indicated that
29.2 percent of the milk sold in zone
2 was processed in zone 1 and 11.6
percent of the milk sold in zone 2
was processed out of states
Judge Craig wrote, “the
operations of dealers or handlers
located outside the marketing zone
so intergrally affect the sale and
distribution of milk within the
zone, we believe that the language
of the section should not be so
strictly construed as to limit board
consideration of dealers only to
those physically situated within
the subject area.”
(Turn to Page A 35)
* visitors; - ?smJ*: :; *&s
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