Wrong Time to Raise Taxes on Farmers
It’s been a busy second week in the Missouri Senate, with important bills heard in Committee on issues impacting agriculture and small business.
The average size of a farm in Missouri is 290 acres and declining while the average age of a Missouri farmer is 58 years old and increasing. With devastating floods and a poor economy, this is the wrong time to burden farmers in Missouri with tax increases. Regulations filed by the State Tax Commission on December 29, 2015, would increase local property taxes on 35% of Missouri farmland by 5%. That’s why I am sponsoring SCR 52 — to disapprove these increases.
Most of us who come from rural areas across the state know what is happening to our farmland. The traditional family farm is under a tremendous burden. Farmers are looking for ways to cut their per acre costs just to keep farming. We need to continually expand and improve the land and reinvest in farm growth. We are already asking our farmers to endure a lot. To meet the world demand we will need to double agricultural production in the next 50 years.
Farmers are trying to recover from recent flooding and net farm income is down over multiple years across all commodities. Agriculture is the number one industry in the state. We need to encourage and help our next generation of farmers by removing obstacles, not raising taxes, supporting them in their important work, and defending them against activists such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), now and in the future.
Visitors this week were: Dr. Wes Kemp, Dr. Laura Montgomery, Gary and Karen Urich, Anthony and April Huddleston, Cheryl Haley, and Brett Durbin.
If you have any questions or comments regarding issues in state government or within the 28th Senatorial District, please feel free to contact my office.
Contact Information:
Senator Mike Parson
State Capitol Building, Room 420
Phone: 573-751-8793
or 800-752-8256
mparson@senate.mo.gov
“Nothing is Politically Right Which is Morally Wrong”