AlO-Unc—nr Awning, Saturday, August 5,1995
OPINION
A National Sales Tax
Fanners certainly are hit hard whenever real estate taxes get
out of control. Some Lancastr County farmers got together last
week in a bam meeting with state and local officials to air their
concerns. These farmers say they are facing local real estate taxes
of 16 to 30 percent of their net income—even including earned
income off the farm in part-time jobs.
Despite the tax break for farmers, known as Clean and Green,
the fees are too hfgh to allow them to continue farming if these
local taxes continue to escalate at the same rate the' farmers have
experienced in the last 10 years. Other methods of taxation are
proposed, notably an income tax, so that those who don’t own
property but use the schools and police protection also help pay
the bill.
But tax reform does not reduce taxes. It simply shifts taxes.
And not all the shifts would benefit farmers. If you save money
on real estate taxes, it may become income that would then also
become taxable, maybe even putting some individual farms in a
higher tax bracket.
From our point of view, the first priority in tax reform is to
reform the needs of government. If we don’t reduce government
spending, we can’t reduce taxes. Of course, this means reducing
the handouts from government. It means cutting the size of gov
ernment and reducing the multiple levels of government we now
have. And yes, it would mean reducing farm programs although
this would affect mid-West farmers more than in our area.
We think a national sales tax may have some merit. If you con
sume the service or product, you help pay the taxes. Farmers arc
large consumers, both in their farm operations and for their fami
lies. So they would still be paying their share of taxes. But so
would everyone else.
And that’s just what the farmers want. They accept the respon
sibility to pay their taxes. They just don’t want to pay for more
than their fair share, especially when they think they didn’t create
the need for this expanded government in the first place.
Pa. Polled Hereford Association
Field Day, Salunga Acres,
Salunga.
Performance Ram Test Sale, Ag
Arena, Penn State.
Pa. Sheep Producers Field Day, at
State College Performance
Ram Sale, Ag Arena, Stale Col
lege, 10 a.m.
Tree Health Seminar, Towanda’s
SCI Park. 9 a.m., continues
Aug. 26 at Lewisburg’s Soldier
Memorial Park. 9 a.m.
... :--t« M II
Suncla\, August 6
Bedford County Fair, Bedford,
thru Aug. 12.
Schuylkill County Fair, Schuylkill
Clinton County Fair, Mackeysvil
le, thru Aug. 12.
Cochranton Community Fair,
Cochranton, thru Aug. 12.
Greene County Fair, Waynesburg,
thru Aug. 12.
Butler Farm Show, Butler, thru
Aug. 12.
Warren County Fair, Pittsfield,
thru Aug. 12.
Dawson Grange Fair, Dawson,
thru Aug. 12.
Seidler Township Fair, West New
ton, thru Aug. 12.
Tioga County Fair, Whitneysville,
thru Aug. 12.
Bradford County 4-H Roundup.
Pa. Plastic Pesticide Container
Recycling Program, Ag Com
modities, Gettysburg, 9
a.m.-ll:30 a.m.
Ag Horizons Conference, The Inn
at Reading.
Dußois Area Ag and Youth Fair,
Sykesville, thru Aug. 12.
Elk County Fair, Kersey, thru Aug.
12.
Harrold Fair, Greensburg, thru
Aug. 13.
Empire Farm Days, Seneca Falls,
NY, thru Aug. 10.
Bradford County 4-H Roundup,
4-H Building.
Pa. Plastic Pesticide Container
Recycling, Adams County,
9-11:30p.m., Ag Commodities,
Gettysburg.
Herbicide Comparison Demon-
(Turn to Pag* A 24)
Editor:
I see where some of the fanners
in Lancaster County are filing a
class action suit to try to get a
more equitable assessment on
their farms. I have tried several
times, through the Pennsylvania
Farmers’ Association, to have all
farms producing food or fiber be
To Evaluate
Clean and Green
September 1 is just a few weeks
away. If you are planning to enroll
a Lancaster County farm in Clean
and Green, you need to have your
application on file before Septem
ber 1 for consideration for 1996
taxes.
Many farmers are waiting the
results of their appeals before fill
ing. This could be a mistake. Clean
and Green only applies to land and
not buildings. Clean and Green
sets a price on farm land and
woods based on its ability to pro
duce a crop. These values are less
than any market value that will be
assigned. Thus, Clean and Green
will reduce the amount of taxes
you pay.
There is a concern a lot of far
mers do not realize the size of their
tax bill for 1996. For the average
farm in Lancaster County, the loc
al taxes (county, township and
school district) will double. Clean
and Green will reduce this impact.
If you have any questions, con
tact the Lancaster County
Cooperative Extension office at
(717) 394-6851.
Remember, September 1, 1995
is the deadline for applications for
next year’s taxes. TTie application
must be in the Lancaster County
Assessment Office, Courthouse,
Lancaster, Pa. by that date.
To Look For
Crop Deficiencies
Robert Anderson, extension
agronomy agent, reports seeing
signs of nutrient deficiencies in
fields he has been scouting the past
several weeks. Potassium defi
ciency seems to be the most com
mon. In com, potassium deficien
cy will exhibit a yellowing of the
lower leaves with a brown leaf
margin which appears dead. The
yellow area of the leaf will often
appear to be yellow and green
stripe.
Research has shown that potas
sium deficiency may be exagger
ated under dry or compacted soil
conditions. Some research also
shows that the problem will occur
more frequently in reduced tillage
...... :.y
im Forum ♦
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Si. ..
assessed on their value as farms,
not their future development val-
Any home can be the future site
of a shopping mall, gas station or
new highway: yet they are always
assessed as a home. Why are
farms being singled out and as-
(Turn to Pago A3O)
systemi.Therc is no collective
treatment for the crop which is
growing. Soil tests will help to
identify tow nutrient levels.
The best strategy is to accurately
identify the problem and apply
adequate fertilizer for the next
crop. Now would be a good time to
walk your fields and evaluate them
for problems i.e. stand, insects,
diseases, nutrient deficiencies, etc.
To Understand
Heat Stress
The past several weeks of hot
weather reminds us to be aware of
heat stress in animals.
Every animal has a comfort
zone. For milk producing cows,
the comfort zone is 41 to 77
degrees F. At higher temperatures,
cows start experiencing heat stress
and the problems magnifies signif
icantly with increasing humidity.
Several things contribute to
increase body temperatures. These
include heat generated by the
cow’s normal metabolic functions
and additional activities such as
walking and the digestion of fibr
ous feeds such as forages. Expo
sure to high environmental temp-
. •'„ 1 :'■}
BY LAWRtNCi W ALTHOUSt ■
‘mas
m
TUNED-IN AND SENT-OU.
August 6,1995
Tuned-In and
Sent-Out
August 6, 1995
Background Scripture:
Isaiah 6:1
Devotional Reading:
Isaiah 55:6-11
If God were looking for an
Isaiah to be his prophet today—
and he probably is—for what kind
of person would he be looking?
How would he write a classified
advertisement for this person?
WANTED—Someone to be a
prophet in 1995. No experience
necessary. Moral perfection not
necessary. Only prerequisites...
Look at what happened when
he called the first Isaiah to be his
prophet In Isaiah 6 nothing is said
of Isaiah’s qualifications. We
don’t know whether he was well
educated, a charismatic personali
ty, a good speaker, or influential in
the circles of power. We don’t
know whether he was a particular
ly righteous man or even very
spiritual.
Only three things are revealed
about his qualifications. First he
was a man who was sensitive to
the prescence of God. “I saw the
Lord sitting upon a throne, high
and lifted up; and his train filled
the temple” (6:1).
Tuned-In
My paternal grandmother could
walk across a lawn and, without
seeming to be looking for any
thing in particular, would sudden
ly stop, bend over and pick up a
four-leaf clover. I could cross and
recross that same lawn and never
find one. I concluded that my
grandmother was consciously or
unconsciously tuned-in to four
leaf clovers. In much the same
way, there are people who are
tuned-in to the prescence of God.
They find him here and there,
while the rest of us rush by unsee
ing and unhearing. I’m not sure
these people are necessarily
specially-gifted, but rather I
believe they focus their attention
on what is important. I believe all
of us could be tuned-in to God, if
we wanted to be. Isaiah was a man
tuned-in to God.
endures and to radiant heat emitted
from the sun and other hot surfaces
also increase body temperatures.
Dark colored cows absorb about
twice as much heat as light colored
cows. Heat stress occurs when a
cow is unable to dissipate excess
body heat fast enough to prevent
elevated body temperatures.
The primary way cows dissipate
body heat is by evaporation.
Examples are sweating, panting
and sprinkling water on cows in
the presence of a breeze. That is
why blood flow to the skin is
increased and why cows seek
shade. Convection, or the move
ment of air, helps to break up warm
air that envelops a cow’s body.
Conduction is another method
where heat is transferred to colder
objects by direct conduct. That is
why cows like to stand in water
and lie in wet areas. During this hot
weather, keep cows in cool places
out of direct sun light, provide
ample fresh cool water and keep
air moving over your cows.
Feather Prof.’s Footnote:
“Excellence can be yours if you
listen to your inner voice, not the
voice of skeptics."
Secondly, Isaiah was a repen
tant man. In the prescence of the
Holy God of Israel he felt keenly
his sinful state; “Woe is me! For I
am lost; for I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips; for my
eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts” (6:5). What God needed
was not a righteous man, but a
repentant one, for the message of
his prophet was to be one of
repentance.
Repentance doesn’t require any
particular gift, only a willingness
to recognize that we have missed
the mark, that in the prescence of
God we recognize, as did Isaiah,
our unworthiness and desire for
giveness. All of us can and need to
hear God say to us, “...your guilt is
taken away and your sin forgiven”
(6:7). In other words, all of us can
meet that qualification, if we will.
Send Me!
Isaiah’s third qualification was
his willingness to go where and do
what God wanted someone to do.
When he heard the voice of the
Lord saying, “Whom shall I send
and who will go for us?” Isaiah,
nov’ freed of his guilt, spoke up:
“Here I am! Send me” (6:8). This
was a response of faith, for,
although Isaiah did not feel quali
fied, he put his trust in God to
supply him with whatever he
needed in order to be his prophet.
When we take up a task to which
God calls us, our acceptance of
that task is a mark of our trust in
him. We trust that he will equip
and empower us as needed.
Correspondingly, when we turn
him down or fail even to respond
to his call, it means that we do not
trust him. We know we are
inadequate and we answer on the
basis of our inadequacy, not on the
basis of Cod and His grace. It is as
if we are saying. Lord, I don’t trust
you enough to take on this task.
Look at Isaiah, then, and ask
whether you are not just as quali
fied to be God’s servant as he was
AND...just as obligated to respond
to his call.
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A Stelnman Entarpriae
Roberta. Campbell General Manager
Everett R. Newawanger Managing Editor
Copyright 1995 by Lancaster Farming