ALBANY — State Senate Democrats are working to pass a package of bills that they say would help New York’s farmers weather the economics of the agriculture industry and shore up local, family-owned farms.
It comes as the U.S. Department of Agriculture releases the results of its latest agricultural census, reporting that New York has lost 9% of its farms and more than 360,000 acres of farmland between 2017 and 2022.
The state lost 2,788 farms, including 1,865 dairy farms over that length of time. Some of that has been attributed to farm consolidation, where larger companies buy up farms and their land to add to their own operations, but the loss in acreage has legislators worried.
“This vital sector of our economy and our livelihoods operates on a razor’s edge,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea A. Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, said during a press conference Tuesday morning. The package Senate Democrats are supporting includes nine bills.
FARMER AID
One would lower the threshold for the agricultural assessment tax credit for small farms to $5,000 of annual sales, meaning more and smaller farms would be eligible for the credit. That bill is sponsored by Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Kingston, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, who said she believes the lower threshold to access the assessment would help slow the loss of family farms in New York.
“That will make it much more affordable for people to start farms, start smaller farms, get into the trade and start to reverse some of those numbers that we’re seeing,” she said Thursday.
Another Hinchey bill would set a procurement goal for state agencies to purchase New York-grown food and agricultural goods, and another would establish a farming hotline run by the Cornell Cooperative Extension network that would seek to be a “one-stop shop” for information on state agricultural grants and programs for farmers to use.
One bill, introduced by Sen. Jamaal T. Bailey, D-Bronx, would establish a state-sponsored program to help farm owners lay out succession plans for their businesses should they seek to sell or close them.
OTHER PROVISIONS
Other bills in the package would set up an Office of Urban Agriculture in the state Department of Agriculture and Markets to help coordinate urban farming policy; establish a member of the State Fire Prevention and Building Council focused on representing agricultural needs; expand and promote statewide farmers markets; permit direct shipping of alcoholic cider products from New York-based producers to residents and out of state; establish a tax credit for farmers who utilize “carbon farming” practices to offset emissions; and establish a health incentive program for SNAP benefit recipients to encourage them to buy healthy, New York-grown produce.
“I’m really proud of the work that we’ve been able to continue to do in the sector and the future of New York agriculture,” Hinchey said.
New York’s farmers have expressed ongoing concerns over the decision in 2022 that the state-mandated cap on regular-pay hours for farm workers be dropped from 60 hours per week to 40 hours per week. Any work done over 40 hours per week must be paid at the overtime rate of the hourly wage plus 50%, once the change is fully implemented in 2032.
Starting Jan. 1 of this year, the regular-pay cap was dropped to 56 hours a week. The drop will continue incrementally over the next eight years. Farm owners and their advocates argued the drop would ruin their already thin profit margins, requiring them to either hire more staff to complete the same amount of work of pay their existing staff much more for the same work.
Advocates for farm workers and labor rights activists argued that the 60-hour cap for agricultural workers, which exists for no other industry in the state, was an unfair double standard set for an industry that often hires immigrant and undocumented workers, who don’t always speak English and can find it difficult to self-advocate or participate in the political process.
TAX REFUNDS
On Tuesday, Hinchey said she and her colleagues in Albany hear those concerns loud and clear, which is why they passed a tax credit last year aimed at providing tax refunds equal to the amount of overtime paid out by the farm owner because of the lowered threshold.
As of Jan. 1 of this year, farm employers can apply to the Department of Agriculture and Markets for an advance payment on overtime paid between Jan. 1 and July 31 of each year. It pays overtime costs incurred up to 60 hours per week per employee, and is crafted to match the annual lowering of the threshold up to 2032. With tax time here, Hinchey said she, her colleagues and the New York Farm Bureau are working to expand awareness and access to the credit.
“We put the tax credit in place to cover the costs, so there should be no additional business expense for farmers between the 40 and 60 hours,” she said.
In a statement included with the Senate majority’s press release announcing the bill package, New York Farm Bureau president David Fisher, who runs a dairy farm in St. Lawrence County, said he was happy to see this package get attention from Albany leadership.
“New York Farm Bureau appreciates Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Sen. Michelle Hinchey and her colleagues in the Senate majority for introducing the package of bills that seek to expand market opportunities for farmers and provide logistical support, including for farmland transition and growing businesses,” he said. “We look forward to working with the legislature to support farms across the state.”