WVFB 2015 legislative priorities
Agriculture and Agricultural Funding
• Promote action to secure an
agriculture exemption for
aboveground storage tanks not
located in critical concern areas.
• Promote strategies/activities to
confront the ongoing regulatory
challenges posed by an ever
aggressive EPA to ensure strength
and continued growth in West
Virginia’s agricultural economy.
• Maintain adequate funding for the
predator control program.
• Promote legislation to establish/define
veterinary technician responsibilities.
• Promote strategies and/or legislation to
establish Captive Cervid farming as an
agriculture enterprise, regulated by the
West Virginia Department of Agriculture.
Property Rights
• Promote reasonable and responsible
legislation regulating oil and
gas exploration that will protect
private property/surface owners’
rights and the environment, while
encouraging the development of our
resources. Farm Bureau supports
the rights of land and mineral
owners to negotiate with other
parties to achieve the desired use
of resources.
• Promote trespasser responsibility
legislation to strengthen and protect
longstanding liability rules.
• Promote legislation to protect landowner
from civil liability for injuries that may
occur to a person or property on the
landowner’s property or surrounding
property caused while hunting.
• Ensure that antidegradation
implementation procedures follow
the interpretative rule set forth by
DEP. (With the exception of streams
in state and national parks and the
limited number identified by the
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, any
stream nominated for Tier 3 status
must follow procedure – individual
notification of landowner(s), current
scientific data, appeal process via
EQB, etc.).
Rural Values/Public Issues
• Promote legislative action to have right
to work placed on the ballot.
• Agricultural representation on the DEP
Advisory Council.
• Support legislation that recognizes English
as the official language of West Virginia.
Taxes/Tax Reform
• Promote action to ensure county
assessors adhere to the approved
formula for appraising farmland.
• Maintain current farm use valuation
status for real property in
production agriculture, including the
$1,000 production standard, while
eliminating non-farmer access to
this tax classification.
• Support tax reform measures that have
a positive effect on agriculture and
oppose those measures that might
have a negative effect.
West Virginia Farm Bureau News 7