Kron: Clock Is Ticking on the Farm Bill
Published: Friday, September 13, 2024
Water rights, property taxes and the farm bill were among the topics discussed last week by Indiana Farm Bureau President Randy Kron. He was the keynote speaker at the LaGrange County Farm Bureau annual meeting.
"They're trying to get enough votes so they can vote on the House floor," Kron said of Republican leaders' efforts to pass a farm bill. "They will not call it down until they have enough votes. If that doesn't happen before they recess in October, we're probably going to get an extension during the lame duck (session)."
Congress returned from its August recess last Tuesday, the same day Kron traveled to LaGrange to address the Farm Bureau crowd. Lawmakers now have less than 30 legislative days before the end of the year. If the House can muster enough votes to pass the farm bill, the Senate would have to follow suit and then the two bills would need to be reconciled before the final legislation heads to the president's desk.
Kron said that's a tall order, but said farmers need certainty heading into 2025.
"If it's not done by the end of the year, (then) it's a new Congress," he said. "We start all over with new committees, new assignments."
One issue which that Farm Bureau is watching closely is a legislative "fix" for Proposition 12, passed by California voters in 2018. After surviving several legal challenges, the law went into effect at the start of this year.
"That's the one that basically says how you have to raise your livestock if you sell into California," he said.
He said Farm Bureau opposes any state dictating how farmers in other states should care for their hogs and chickens.
University studies show that building Proposition 12-compliant barns can cost 40% more than traditional barns, according to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. He told the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this year that pork producers don't have a choice about doing business with California and not in California.
If Prop 12 is allowed to stand, Kron said it could spill over into other states or even affect crop production.
"They might tell you how to raise your corn, how to raise your soybeans," he said. "You might have to have a certain carbon intensity score or you can't sell into California."
Turning to state issues, Kron said INFB delegates updated their policy book last month. Two priority issues are water and taxes. But he acknowledged that lawmakers will also have their hands full passing a budget.
"Usually there are more requests than there are dollars," Kron said.
Regarding water, the one issue generating most of the concern is a proposal to transport up to 100 million gallons of water per day from an underground aquifer in Tippecanoe County through a pipeline to a 9,000-acre, high-tech innovation park, known as LEAP, currently proposed for Boone County.
"We're not against economic development, but what we're concerned about is:, where they want to pump it from there are a lot of irrigation wells there for agriculture," Kron said.
He added that, unlike residential wells, there is no protection in state law for irrigation wells.
Farmers are concerned that pumping that much water could draw down the underground aquifer that they use to water their crops and livestock.
"That's not right to invest the capital you needed, whether it's a center pivot or whatever, and flip the switch and find that somebody's piped it away," Kron said.
He said Tippecanoe County also wants to expand and may need more water in the future.
"We need to be very careful," he said.
He added that INFB has a water task force working on this issue.
At the delegate session on Aug. 17, INFB delegates passed a resolution calling for a statewide water monitoring system.
"We've got to know what's going on underground and how much water you're moving," Kron said. "And is the aquifer being recharged? If it's not, you need to make those decisions early, not late."
Farmers are also concerned by recent increases in their property tax bills. Kron said assessed values on farmland have gone up 16% and 26% in the past two years and are expected to jump another 20% next year. No other class of property has experienced three years of double-digit increases.
"It's about the shifts," he said. "When you're going up faster than everybody else, it means you shift."
Kron said higher property taxes come at a bad time for farmers. USDA is forecasting a 25% reduction in farm income this year and Purdue University economists say the best thing crop farmers can hope for is to break even.
In his nine years serving as INFB president, Kron said it's odd that water and taxes appear on the stage at the same time.
"These are huge issues," he said. "If we have one of these issues by itself, it would be a huge lift and it's going to take our membership engagement to make these happen."
He urged Farm Bureau members to appeal to their state legislators.
One lawmaker, Sue Glick, a Republican state senator representing District 13, attended the meeting. She told the crowd of roughly 75 people that a water pipeline may not be needed to supply water to the Boone County industrial park.
"Citizens Energy in the Indianapolis area has represented that they have found enough water to supply the LEAP district and there will not be a pipeline from Tippecanoe County," she said.
Despite this news, she said Indiana still needs a statewide water policy. She said that's something the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which Leising chairs, supports. She is also the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
"As all of us who live in the land of plenty, I guess, think that we have unlimited resources—and certainly we're blessed with water in Northeast Indiana—but we now know that it can disappear in a hurry if you have individuals who can take it away," she said. "We are worried not only about the quality of our water but also the quantity issue."
Many of the facilities planned or proposed in the LEAP district are "water hogs," she said.
"We have to follow up and make sure that water doesn't disappear, because that is the farm belt," she said.
Further north, she added that two data centers are planned for the Granger area in St. Joseph County (Ind.). They also present water quantity concerns.
"Two data centers would take an enormous amount of water out of the water table, and that would come out of the St. Joseph River Basin, which we all share," she said.
Also on hand was Tony Isa, a Republican candidate for state representative in District 51 covering LaGrange and Steuben counties. Indiana Farm Bureau has endorsed Isa in the general election.
If elected, the Angola resident hopes to serve on the House's Utility and Natural Resources committees.
"Most people don't realize this, but we're struggling with natural gas and utilities in general," he said. "In Fremont, it (natural gas) is almost out."
Isa is a real estate broker, owns an ice cream shop and serves on the Steuben County council. His opponent in the Nov. 5 general election is Judy Rowe (D).
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