|
April 2003 farmland preservation report Page 5
<br />other middle income landowners to get an incentive
<br />in proportion to the value of their gift, rather than to
<br />the size of their income."
<br />Section 107 of the CARE bill would cut capital
<br />gains tax by 25 percent on sales of land or of
<br />conservation easements to a conservation charity or
<br />government agency. It is modeled on the 50 percent
<br />exclusion proposed by President Bush in his budget.
<br />Section 108 of the CARE bill would exclude
<br />from taxation grants to landowners from the
<br />Department of Interior's Partners for Fish and
<br />Wildlife program, which shares in the cost of
<br />improving wildlife habitat on private lands.
<br />The managers' amendment to the bill also
<br />included a provision setting up a pilot program
<br />under which up to $2 billion in tax - exempt bonds
<br />could be issued by nonprofit organizations to
<br />purchase land for conservation, with the bonds
<br />repaid by renewable resource use on the land.
<br />Entrepreneurial agriculture the focus
<br />for NY, PA regional effort
<br />OWEGO, NY — The Southern Tier East Regional
<br />Planning Development Boa: d in Tioga County, NY.
<br />and partners in Pennsylvania and New York are
<br />examining the feasibility of a shared -use commercial
<br />kitchen to help farmers and other entrepreneurs
<br />develop value -added products from their crops or
<br />suppliers.
<br />According to John Hoover of Yellow Wood
<br />Associates, a consulting firm in St. Albans, VT, the
<br />space and equipment could also be used for training
<br />in food safety, marketing and small business
<br />development. The effort is seen as a way to revitalize
<br />rural areas threatened by a decline in farming and a
<br />rise in sprawl.
<br />Yellow Wood, serving as facilitator of the
<br />project, conducted a survey of potential users in the
<br />I I -county study region, including farmers' market
<br />vendors, farm markets, roadside stands and others.
<br />Enterprise agriculture is getting a lot of atten-
<br />tion in other places, including Loudoun County, Va.,
<br />which has a four - person staff looking at ways to
<br />boost ag in a metro county, and in Michigan, where
<br />the Michigan Land Use Institute heads up the New
<br />Entrepreneurial Agriculture Project. It will sponsor
<br />a statewide conference, "Seeds of Prosperity: Food,
<br />Farms and Michigan's Economic Future," in
<br />November. For information on the conference see
<br />the Institute's website at mlui.org.
<br />Continued from page 4
<br />by the task force, and the bill was premature.
<br />"We testified it was a good idea, but on the
<br />state side of the ledger it needs work. There's a
<br />difference between installment payments and
<br />IPAs." Wilson said MALPF funds will soon
<br />consist only of bond money, and IPAs cannot be
<br />financed with bond proceeds.
<br />Maryland budgets $22 million in bond funds
<br />for MALPF, protects transfer tax dedication
<br />Looking for ways to cut the state's deficit,
<br />fiscal analysts advised that the state's real estate .
<br />transfer tax revenues, the primary source of funds
<br />for land preservation, be permanently channeled
<br />to the general fund, but Maryland legislators said
<br />no. And, in another move that buoyed the spirits
<br />of conservationists, legislators chalked up a 50
<br />percent return of those revenues in fiscal year
<br />`05, up from zero. All transfer tax revenues were
<br />cut from the `04 budget.
<br />While MALPF will hold its own in funding
<br />levels with $21.9 million, the Rural Legacy
<br />Program will barely survive the state's fiscal
<br />crisis, with $5 million in bond funds, down from
<br />$21.3 million, the land program hardest hit by
<br />cuts, along with its Glendening -era partner,
<br />Green Prints. Current Rural Legacy applicants
<br />are asking for $95.4 million for easements.
<br />Adding to anxiety in Annapolis, the legisla-
<br />ture ended its session without resolving the
<br />state's budget crisis and refused to approve slot
<br />machines as a means to do so, much to the
<br />dismay of Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich. As a
<br />result, Ehrlich has indicated more cuts will come.
<br />"There's still a big concern because of the
<br />hole in the budget," said Grant Dehart, policy
<br />analyst for the Department of Natural Resources.
<br />"It's considerably better in `05 ... if you're opti-
<br />mistic they'll leave [the money] there."
<br />Program Open Space could be a big target
<br />considering the alternative -cuts to education or
<br />social programs, officials say. So far, POS has
<br />been hit with a 22.6 percent loss from `03.
<br />
|