WV Farm Bureau Magazine January 2015 | Page 7

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