WVFB 2016 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
Agriculture and Agricultural Funding
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.
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 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. Support legislation action to direct necessary financing to Local Education Agencies for facility maintenance, as well as new construction.
Support legislative action to ensure local control on Sunday hunting, with approval only by local option at the ballot box.
Taxes / Tax Reform
Farm Bureau recommends an investigation of individual budget items rather than acrossthe-board cuts to address budget shortfalls.
Farm Bureau supports reinstating the food tax as a broad based tax.
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 might have a positive effect on agriculture and oppose those measures that might have a negative effect.
West Virginia Farm Bureau News 7