On Wednesday (March 10), the Senate passed the \u201cAmerican Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010.\u201d Besides providing $1.5 billion in disaster funds for agriculture, the bill would reinstate vital tax credits for the biodiesel industry that expired last December. The bill must still be reconciled with similar House legislation. \u201cThis past week we’ve had a lot of discussions with people from other regions of the country asking why the South needs a disaster program on top of the ones we have under permanent legislation,\u201d said Richard Bell, Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture, during a conference call set up by Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln. \u201cThe answer is rather simple: because we\u2019re different. The legislation that\u2019s just passed will fill the gaps in the 2008 farm bill and will be a big plus for us.\u201d\u00a0 Few outside agriculture realize how difficult 2009 was for Mid-South growers, said Bell. \u201cThe crop started out with too much rain in the spring. We ended up with terrible rains again in the fall. The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture estimates that (state) losses are somewhere around $600 million \u2013 and that includes the value-added part of it and close to 4,000 jobs lost.\u201d Farmers are now \u201cone step closer to receiving relief they desperately need,\u201d said Sen. Lincoln, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. \u201cThis will provide an estimated $1 billion in supplemental payments to producers who suffered crop losses. It also provides $300 million in assistance to specialty crop producers, $75 million in emergency loans to poultry producers, $50 million in assistance to livestock producers, $20 million for aquaculture assistance and $42 million for first handlers of cottonseed.\u201d How quickly might farmers receive those funds? \u201cWe want to make sure (the bill passes) as quickly as possible,\u201d said Lincoln. \u201cWe’ve made known to the House how important that is. There are a lot of members there who understand people have been waiting on this. Most of the tax extenders expired last December, some last June. So there\u2019s an (urgency) to it. \u201cI can’t predict when the House will send it back to us. My hope is it will be next week (the week of March 15).\u201d Speaking on the biodiesel tax initiatives, Lincoln said \u201cthere\u2019s no doubt that in order to grow jobs and the economy there must be predictability in the tax code. These are new industries finding their footing \u2026 and they’ve got to be able to go to capital markets for the resources they need. They can\u2019t do that without more predictability in the economy and tax code.\u201d Like other biodiesel manufacturers, Delta American Fuel in Helena, Ark., stands to benefit from the bill\u2019s tax credit. Without it, some 40 jobs were in jeopardy, said Bernie Crowley, Jr., general manager\/owner of Delta American Fuel who now plans to hire 30 or 35 more people. \u201cThe biodiesel tax credit extended today is what formed the biodiesel industry,\u201d said Crowley. \u201cWithout it, the industry would have never existed.\u201d Asked about the demand for biodiesel since the tax incentive lapsed last December, Crowley said, \u201cIt\u2019s disappeared. It went from a demand that wasn’t incredibly healthy to one that dried up. Without the biofuel tax credit it would continue to dry up. \u2026 There are no sales in the industry and we have over 500,000 gallons of product sitting in tanks we’ve been unable to sell.\u201d The bill also includes an extension of the new markets tax credit \u201cwhich provides capital to spur economic development in low-income areas,\u201d said Lincoln. The credit \u201cdoes a tremendous job in leveraging dollars \u2013 private dollars with public dollars. The partnerships are amazing in terms of the resources we see pumping into our communities through the initiative.\u201d The new market tax credit program is \u201cused to encourage private capital investment in business and projects in low-income and rural communities,\u201d said Sam Walls, III, senior vice president of Arkansas Capital Corp. \u201cI think this is a great program and represents the best in public\/private partnerships. It isn’t a grant program. It\u2019s used to help bring private capital to areas that, even in the best of economic conditions, struggle to attract investment. Typically, the projects are \u201ccatalytic\u201d in nature, said Walls. \u201cInvesting in such projects tends to bring in additional investment. A study from several years ago showed that for every dollar of federal money used in the program, about $14 of investment is attracted.\u201d Also included in the bill: a one-year extension of the tax credit that provides short-line and regional railroads. \u201cThis is a 50 percent tax credit for expenditures for maintaining railroad tracks they own or lease,\u201d said Lincoln. \u201cOur short-line rail lines in Arkansas are absolutely essential.\u201d Another provision in the legislation is aimed to ensure that those who sell timber \u201care taxed at the capital gains rate, which is lower than the current rate for some.\u201d The bipartisan legislation was passed in just three months. Usually, \u201cagriculture disaster (legislation) takes anywhere from three to four years to pass,\u201d said Lincoln. \u201cI knew our farmers didn’t have that kind of time. That\u2019s one of the reasons I’ve been so busy (on Capitol Hill) working with colleagues and pestering just about any member of the Senate I could to ensure this (passed) and get it moved to the House. I’ll now continue that 24\/7 attitude to make sure members of the House understand how important it is.\u201d The legislation \u201cis very much needed,\u201d said Mike Booker, a Monroe County farmer. Following last year\u2019s very wet, trying early season with late-planted and re-planted crops, \u201cwe managed to put a nice crop together. Then, towards the fall, we had extreme amounts of rain again \u2013 so much that it flooded all the river bottoms. Every creek in Monroe County swelled and took hundreds of acres. Each of my neighbors lost 20 to 25 percent of their soybeans. Those closer to the rivers lost 50 to 75 percent of their soybeans.\u201d Farmers, said Booker, are \u201cstruggling to put things together, to get a crop loan, to get back in the field and try again. Some aren\u2019t going to make it. It\u2019s a really bad time and this (legislation) is really needed.\u201d <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday (March 10), the Senate passed the \u201cAmerican Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010.\u201d Besides providing $1.5 billion in disaster funds for agriculture, the bill would reinstate vital tax credits for the biodiesel industry that expired last December. The bill must still be reconciled with similar House legislation. \u201cThis past week we’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138502334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-new-markets-tax-credit-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n