State Agricultural Appropriations for FY 2009-2010

Background:
As this is being written, the General Assembly has failed to reach agreement on a state budget package, for FY 2009-2010, even though several weeks have passed since the budget deadline.

While the majority of legislators in the House and Senate members have accepted the economic reality of serious shortfall in state revenues for the upcoming year and the need to reduce state spending to meet the expected revenue shortfall, legislators are still fighting over where and how much will be cut from the differing state programs and departments.
For agriculture, the reality is that state funding for many agricultural programs and programs outside of agriculture may be significantly cut from prior year’s levels, with some programs receiving no funding.  But the extent of funding cuts that may occur has not been finally resolved.

Since the time when formal budget proposals were first offered, when the severity of Pennsylvania’s economic situation became apparent, Farm Bureau conveyed a consistent message to the Governor and the General Assembly that agriculture would accept its fair share of cuts but that the Governor’s and legislature’s initial proposals imposed a disproportionate cut for agriculture relative to other areas and were unacceptable.  Farm Bureau identified for the Governor and the legislature program areas most vital to the welfare of agriculture where state appropriations should be directed.

The most recent proposals for the most vital agricultural appropriation lines have improved greatly over proposals initially offered.  These recent proposals have increased total appropriations for vital ag lines by more than $3.5 million above what was proposed by the Governor and more than 5.3 million above what the Senate had originally approved in budget legislation.  The percentage of cuts for agriculture in the most recent proposals is now in line with the average percentage of cuts proposed for other Commonwealth agencies.  Even so, the most favorable proposal being considered by the legislature would cut total agricultural appropriations by more than 21 percent, and funding for vital ag lines would still fall some $7 million short of what Farm Bureau had originally recommended.

Most recently proposed budget lines for specific agricultural programs (as of July 24) contained in the House-passed and Senate-passed versions of House Bill 1416:

The agricultural community must remain active in contacting their legislators to minimize cuts and encourage increases in agricultural appropriation lines:
There is still opportunity for House and Senate to make further increases or decreases to the budget lines they have proposed so far, including agricultural lines.  Farm Bureau members need to continue to make contacts with their legislators and encourage their legislator to work with House and Senate leaders at continuing to improve appropriation levels for vital ag programs.  Legislators also need to be reminded that agriculture’s share of appropriations has been consistently reduced during the “good budget years” and urged to defend agriculture’s lines from budget raiding for other non-ag programs.

Farm Bureau members should:

• Contact House and Senate members, especially those in House and Senate Leadership, those in House and Senate Appropriations Committees and those in House and Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committees.
• Urge your legislator to work with House and Senate leaders to find additional ways to increase levels of agricultural appropriations above levels most recently proposed by the House and Senate.
• Urge your legislator to strongly oppose any attempt to reduce any agricultural appropriation line below what has most recently been proposed by the House and Senate.