Pa. Grangers Pass Resolutions At State Convention
ALLENTOWN (Lehigh Co.)
600 Pennsylvania State
Grange delegates at the 127th
annual convention here set poli
cy on a number of important
issues.
Those issues include revi
sions to the state inheritance tax
reform, farmland preservation
funding, national voter registra
tion, drought relief, stray voltage
guidelines, and the Reading
Across America initiative.
The convention ran Oct. 23-
26 and was hosted by the eight
Granges in LehighyNorthamp
ton counties.
“As a grass-roots organiza
tion, the policies determined
here will influence our legisla
tive efforts on Capitol Hill as we
work on legislation that will
affect agriculture and rural
Pennsylvania,” Brenda Shambaugh,
legislative director, said. “These
issues are of greatest concern to
our membership, and the
Pennsylvania State Grange will
see that these policies are
addressed at the state and fed
eral level.”
Summaries of the key issues
passed by the delegates are;
Drought Relief Funding
The Pennsylvania State
Grange acted on numerous reso
lutions concerning drought relief
funding.
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“Without a doubt, the biggest
issue facing the Grange this
year was the devastating
drought. We spent many hours
at the state department of agri
culture formulating a plan with
Agriculture Secretary Sam
Hayes to assist farmers during
this extremely difficult time,”
Shambaugh said. “Our initial
focus was geared toward helping
those farmers with livestock
who needed hay. We are now
working with the Pennsylvania
General Assembly to broaden
our scope of assistance. We also
traveled to Washington to talk to
our Congressional leaders about
federal drought relief, and will
continue to pursue funding for
farmers who were affected by
the drought.”
Shambaugh said the Grange
passed policy that enables the
organization to continue work
ing with state and federal offi
cials to provide as much support
as possible for all segments of
the agricultural industry
adversely by this summer’s
drought.
Inheritance Tax Reform
The Pennsylvania State
Grange reaffirmed its long
standing policy concerning the
i state inheritance tax, which is
1 inherently unfair to small busi
nesses.
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“For successive generations,
70 percent of all businesses
never make it past the first gen
eration, while 87 percent do not
last to the third generation,”
Shambaugh said. “Owning a
small business and passing it on
to the next generation is part of
the American dream. By elimi
nating this unfair and burden
some tax we seek to keep that
dream from becoming a night
mare.”
Grange policy calls for the tax
rate for brothers and sisters or
nieces and nephews to be low
ered from its current 15 percent
to the same rate for parents and
children, which is 6 percent.
Read Across America
The Pennsylvania State
Grange, a family-oriented orga
nization, recognizes and is com
mitted to promoting reading as a
catalyst for the future academic
success of our students. To that
end, the delegate body passed a
resolution lending the organiza
tion’s involvement with the
Read Across America program,
which seeks adult involvement
in the education of our commu
nity’s children.
“This policy is another in a
long line of commitments by the
Pennsylvania State Grange to
the education of our children,”
Shambaugh said. “This type of
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program brings youths and
adults together and lays a solid
educational foundation for our
young people. Furthermore, it
reinstates our commitment to
the principle that an education
al investment is the key to a
community’s well-being and
long-term quality of life.”
A number of initiatives to
become involved with this pro
gram, following the passage of
the resolution, were already
started at the session and will
be implemented in the coming
months. One measure discussed
is contacting school districts in
Pennsylvania to secure used
textbooks for flood victims in
North Carolina. In several rural
districts in North Carolina, the
school systems have been
destroyed, including all of their
teaching resources.
Phone Towers
Currently, there are few regu
lations that monitor the con
struction of towers for cellular
communication. A resolution
was passed that would establish
standards and regulations to
govern their construction.
“The resolution is about safe
ty and compensation,”
Shambaugh said. “It seeks safe
ty standards to ensure that tow
ers don’t jeopardize existing
structures, and monetary com
pensation for land owners for an
easement in the area where the
tower would be constructed.
More than 70 resolutions
were considered at the 127th
annual session of the
Pennsylvania State Grange. The
resolutions that passed at the
convention became Grange poli
cy. Resolutions that became poli
cy and have federal implications
are sent to the National Grange
convention to be considered by
delegates at the national ses
sion. The 133rd annual National
Grange convention runs Nov. 8-
14 in Portland, Maine.
Losing
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(Continued from Page A 27)
ry. In the group classes: 1. Jennifer
Viscusi and Broock Winger. 2.
Tina Houser and Rebecca Vonada.
3. Da May and Nancy McMillin.
The first-place winners at the
state convention advance to the
regional meeting, the Mid-Atlantic
Grange Conference, Gettysburg,
April 14-16.
Also, members of several state
Granges attended the meeting.
They included Jack Robinson,
New Jersey Master, John Thomp
son, Maryland Master; and Mervin
Richard, Delaware Master.
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