12 CapitalPress.com
January 6, 2017
‘We’re entering this year with a lot of questions’
SESSION from Page 1
Here is a state-by-state
look at the upcoming legisla-
tive sessions:
Oregon: Budget gap
will dominate
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — With Oregon
legislators facing a major gap
between the state government’s
expected revenue and expenses,
debates over spending reduc-
tions and tax increases are ex-
pected to dominate this year’s
legislative session.
Rising costs for state em-
ployee pension and healthcare
costs are expected to leave the
state with a $1.8 billion deficit
during the upcoming fiscal bi-
ennium, which spans two years
beginning July 1. The current
biennium’s budget is $70.9 bil-
lion.
For organizations represent-
ing Oregon agriculture, that
means the legislative session
will be spent defending govern-
ment services that are valuable
to farmers, experts say.
“People really feel those im-
pacts on the ground,” said Katie
Fast, executive director of Ore-
gonians for Food and Shelter, an
agribusiness group.
For example, the governor’s
recommended budget would
create a “hole” of $9.4 million
for Oregon State University’s
agricultural research and exten-
sion services, likely leading to
reduced service levels, she said.
Such a dramatic reduction
would undermine long-term
studies that boost farmers’ pro-
ductivity and efficiency, said
Fast. “You don’t do research for
only two years.”
Similarly, the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture would
terminate its financial contribu-
tion to USDA’s predator control
program and its biocontrol pro-
gram for weeds.
The Oregon Agricultural
Heritage Program, which is
aimed at creating easements
to protect working farms and
ranches from development
while easing tax burdens, isn’t
funded under the governor’s
budget proposal, said Mary
Anne Nash, the Oregon Farm
Bureau’s public policy counsel.
It’s going to be tough to
win funding for a new program
when existing core agricultural
programs are in jeopardy, she
said.
On the policy front, Oregon
farmers are still dealing with the
consequences of past labor leg-
islation that requires paid sick
leave for workers and increased
the minimum wage at varying
rates based on region, said Jen-
ny Dresler, state public policy
director at the Oregon Farm
Bureau.
The Bureau of Labor and
Industries has interpreted those
bills during the rule-making
process in ways that are unclear
and burdensome for farmers, so
the Farm Bureau will be seek-
ing legislative clarifications and
fixes, she said.
“We’re entering this year
with a lot of questions,” said
Dresler.
Environmental groups are
also expected to raise perenni-
al legislative questions about
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Brian Blake, D-Aber-
deen, says of the Hirst decision, “Roll it back or make it work.”
regulating genetically modified
crops, pesticide usage, livestock
antibiotics as well as air and wa-
ter quality, experts say. Exactly
what bills related to these topics
will be put forth remains to be
seen.
With the USDA proposing
to deregulate genetically en-
gineered creeping bentgrass,
which escaped field trials and
has spread in Eastern Oregon,
it’s possible lawmakers will
have a greater appetite to regu-
late such crops, said Ivan Ma-
luski, policy director for Friends
of Family Farmers, a nonprofit
critical of biotechnology rules.
“It’s a pretty clear example
of failure of federal oversight,”
he said.
Friends of Family Farmers
plans to advocate a tax credit
that would benefit landowners
who lease property to beginning
growers, Maluski said.
With the tough budget out-
look, the group hopes to pay for
the tax credit by eliminating a
subsidy for anaerobic digesters
it believes benefits only large
dairies, he said.
“Access to land for begin-
ning farmers has been a huge
issue in Oregon for quite some
time,” said Maluski.
Idaho: Water
issues dominate
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Ensuring the
state continues a major aquifer
recharge effort is expected to be
one of the main agriculture-re-
lated issues during the 2017
Idaho Legislature, which con-
venes Jan. 9.
In fact, several of the big
issues expected to arise during
the 2017 legislative session
have to do with water.
Sen. Jim Patrick, a Repub-
lican farmer from Twin Falls,
said ensuring the state con-
tinues its efforts to recharge
250,000 acre-feet of water into
the Eastern Snake Plain Aqui-
fer annually will be a priority
in 2017.
That recharge effort, which
began in 2016, is a major part
of a landmark 2015 settlement
agreement between ground
water pumpers and surface wa-
ter users along the ESPA that
averted the possible curtail-
ment of water to hundreds of
thousands of acres of irrigated
farmland.
“That’s the No. 1 issue for
agriculture and for the state be-
cause if we don’t get our water,
we don’t pay taxes,” Patrick
said.
“We will have to continue
to fund that,” said Sen. Bert
Brackett, a Republican rancher
from Rogerson. “The state is
committed to doing recharge.”
Lawmakers will also keep
an eye on the formation of a
groundwater management area
for the Eastern Snake Plain
established in November by
Idaho Department of Water Re-
sources Director Gary Spack-
man.
An advisory committee cre-
ated by IDWR will draft a plan
that governs the management
area.
“We’re waiting to see how
that shakes out,” said Republi-
can Sen. Steven Bair, a retired
farmer from Blackfoot.
Idaho Farm Bureau Fed-
eration governmental affairs
officials said they will back a
bill that requires the legislature
to take affirmative action on
any minimum stream flows set
by the Idaho Water Resource
Board.
The water board holds 291
minimum stream flow water
rights covering 994 miles of
streams, according to its web-
site. If a stream falls below that
minimum flow level, other wa-
ter rights could by curtailed.
Minimum stream flows set
by the board go before the Leg-
islature but they go into effect
even if the body doesn’t take
affirmative action on them.
The Farm Bureau-backed
bill would require the legis-
lature to vote “yes or “no” on
them.
Discussions about the pos-
sibility of the state helping
to fund University of Idaho’s
proposed $45 million livestock
research center will also likely
take place during the session,
according to several legislators.
Lawmakers are also ex-
pected to discuss ways to beef
up the state’s efforts to prevent
aquatic invasive species from
invading the state’s waterways
and continue to fund the state’s
wolf control efforts.
Idaho’s main farm groups
will also seek to help push
through a proposed Idaho De-
partment of Environmental
Quality rule that would amend
the state’s field burning pro-
gram.
Several of the state’s envi-
ronmental groups say they will
Public lands grazing a major issue in Owyhee County
oppose the rule change, which
the department says is neces-
sary to avoid a large reduction
in the number of allowable
burn days for farmers.
A bill that creates a dyed
diesel enforcement program in
Idaho will be introduced this
year, Brackett said.
Washington: Well
questions, taxes
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The big
water issue facing the Wash-
ington Legislature originated
from west of the Cascades for
a change.
Whatcom County annually
receives more than triple the
rainfall of Yakima County. Yet
the state Supreme Court ruled
6-3 in October that new domes-
tic wells there could suck away
water needed for fish.
The Whatcom County vs.
Hirst decision doesn’t affect ex-
isting water rights, but it casts
doubt on whether new wells for
homes can be drilled anywhere
in the state.
Agricultural groups, includ-
ing the Washington Farm Bu-
reau, are alarmed. The decision
could stop farm families from
building and cripple rural com-
munities.
The state Department of
Ecology reports being del-
uged with phone calls from
rural landowners worried about
whether they can build. The
agency can’t say “yes” or “no.”
At the very least, the deci-
sion — if left alone — prom-
ises to make wells more ex-
pensive. Homebuilders would
have to prove a new well won’t
draw down rivers and streams.
Estimates to do that range from
thousands to tens of thousands
of dollars.
“Every place we go, some-
body asks us how we’re going
to fix this,” said Moses Lake
Republican Judy Warnick,
chairwoman of the Senate Ag-
riculture, Water and Economic
Development Committee.
Not everyone agrees the
Hirst decision needs to be fixed.
The environmental group
Futurewise, a plaintiff in the
suit, said the decision means
counties must balance growth
with protecting fish.
House Agriculture and
Natural Resources Committee
Chairman Brian Blake, D-Ab-
erdeen, said he wants to “roll
WHEAT from Page 1
Courtesy of Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission
Cattle graze in Owyhee County, Idaho. A University of Idaho survey
found that residents in the state’s main urban areas see eye-to-eye
on many natural resource issues with people in sparsely populated
and heavily rural Owyhee County.
5 million acres, is one of the na-
tion’s largest counties, and 83
percent of it is public land, most
managed by the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management.
Public lands grazing is a
major issue in Owyhee County.
In response to a lawsuit,
a federal judge ordered the
BLM’s Owyhee field office
to rewrite 68 grazing permits
that it renewed in 1997. The
case includes 120 grazing allot-
ments and impacts hundreds of
thousands of acres in Owyhee
County.
The new permits, issued in
2013, reduced grazing by 30-50
percent in most cases.
The survey results show ur-
ban residents support livestock
grazing on public lands.
Fewer than 2 percent of
urban residents surveyed con-
sidered livestock grazing to be
a serious problem facing south-
western Idaho.
Sixty-six percent of urban
residents felt livestock grazing
was a very healthy or some-
what healthy aspect of working
landscapes while 13 percent
felt it was somewhat or very
unhealthy.
Owyhee County Commis-
sioner Kelly Aberasturi said the
survey results were surprising
but welcomed.
California: Regulatory
relief sought
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — Farm
groups in California expect to
spend the next legislative ses-
sion fending off more regula-
tions while carving out benefits
for their industries.
Advocates for agriculture
expect “an active year” in
the Legislature as Gov. Jerry
Brown works to cement his
legacy in his final two years in
office, said Kelly Covello, pres-
ident of the Almond Alliance of
California.
The main goal for the orga-
nization is to try to minimize
the effort to increase the regula-
tory burden on producers, who
are already struggling to keep
up with paperwork and other
requirements, said Joel Nelsen,
president of California Citrus
Mutual.
“We’re going to see an ef-
fort by certain segments of
society to push a very left-ori-
ented agenda, and they see the
last two years of the Brown ad-
ministration as their opportuni-
ty to do that,” Nelsen said. “It’s
going to be up to the governor
to take a moderate stand on this
stuff. It’s really easy to spend
somebody else’s money, and
that’s what I see them doing.”
While new members were
sworn in Dec. 5, the Legisla-
ture’s business started in ear-
nest this week. Only a handful
of bills have so far been filed;
groups will have a better idea
of what the priority legislation
will be as the mid-February
deadline for filing bills draws
near, said Dave Kranz, a Cali-
fornia Farm Bureau Federation
spokesman.
One task for farm groups
will be to make previously en-
acted legislation a little more
palatable to growers. For in-
stance, the ag overtime law
passed last year eliminated an
exemption on overtime after 8
hours in a day for managers and
family members, which exists
in every other industry, Covello
said in an email.
Additionally, industry lead-
ers will need to address a sec-
tion of the statute that eliminat-
ed exemptions for ag irrigators
and truck drivers, she said.
Under the legislation by As-
semblywoman Lorena Gonza-
lez, D-San Diego, farmworkers
will be paid for overtime after
eight hours in a day and 40
hours in a week rather than the
10-hour day and 60-hour week
for agriculture that Brown orig-
inally approved during his first
stint as governor in 1976. The
new rules will take effect in
2022 for most farms and 2025
for operations with 25 or fewer
employees.
For its part, Citrus Mutu-
al will try anew to gain state
funding to combat the Asian
citrus psyllid and huanglong-
bing, the deadly tree disease it
can potentially carry. The in-
dustry has devoted $15 million
toward research and education
and received $11 million from
the federal government, but
two previous attempts to get
funding for the psyllid and
HLB included in the state bud-
get failed, Nelsen said.
“We’re still in a position
that we do not have HLB in
our commercial areas,” he said.
Among other initiatives that
could affect agriculture:
• Delegates to the state
Farm Bureau’s meeting in
December agreed to oppose
any move by a newly created
“groundwater sustainability
agency” to regulate land use.
Those decisions should be left
up to cities and counties, the
delegates decided.
• The delegates also pro-
pose that the statewide mini-
mum wage be based on living
cost in the lowest-cost areas
in the state, while allowing lo-
calities to set higher minimum
wages as they see fit. Legisla-
tion passed in 2016 will grad-
ually raise the state’s minimum
wage to $15 an hour by 2022.
• The Almond Alliance
will fight for funding in bud-
get bills, trailer bills and grant
applications for the planned
Sites and Temperance Flat res-
ervoirs, Covello said.
Wheat is grown on fewer total acres in U.S.
DIVIDE from Page 1
economic output is tied to the
farming industry.
UI surveyed 450 people
in Ada, Canyon, Elmore and
Owyhee counties. Ada and
Canyon county are the state’s
two most populous urban areas
and, along with Elmore County,
border Owyhee.
Support for livestock graz-
ing was high across the region.
Residents of all four counties
were also in line on many other
natural resource issues, such as
logging and outdoor recreation
opportunities.
For example, while 90 per-
cent of Owyhee County res-
idents surveyed support live-
stock grazing, nearly 80 percent
from the urban areas also sup-
port it.
“There are some very posi-
tive feelings toward agriculture
and grazing,” said UI agricul-
tural economist Neil Rimbey,
one of the report’s four au-
thors. “That’s something you
don’t usually get by reading the
newspapers or listening to the
news.”
Owyhee County, at almost
(the decision) back or make it
work.”
“I’m hoping any legislation
will clarify that people have ac-
cess to their property to build a
home,” he said.
The 105-day session begins
Jan. 9. Republicans retained
their slight majority in the Sen-
ate, while Democrats did the
same in the House. The main
job will be to adopt a two-year
budget to take effect July 1.
Lawmakers are under a court
order from the state Supreme
Court to increase education
spending.
Gov. Jay Inslee, a Dem-
ocrat, has proposed a $46.8
billion operating budget — 21
percent more than the spending
plan lawmakers passed in 2015.
Inslee says the state can’t con-
stitutionally or morally meet
its obligations without raising
taxes. He has proposed $4.39
billion in new revenues. He has
reintroduced a tax on carbon
emissions, a policy that law-
makers and voters have reject-
ed in the past.
Senate and House agricul-
tural committees may consid-
er raising the beef checkoff to
$2.50 from $1.50. Increasing
the per head tax on cattle trans-
actions would double funding
for the Washington Beef Com-
mission to $2 million a year.
The Washington Cattle-
men’s Association and Wash-
ington Cattle Feeders Associ-
ation support the increase. The
Cattle Producers of Washington
lobbied hard against it last year
and remain opposed.
Blake said he hopes the
Legislature will fund a program
to use dogs to sniff for wolf scat
in the South Cascades.
Under current state policy,
wolves won’t be considered
recovered until at least four
breeding pairs are established
in the region. So far, the Wash-
ington Department of Fish and
Wildlife has not found a breed-
ing pair, let alone a pack.
Blake said he believes
wolves are there, but that they
are hard to find in the wilder-
ness. He said if dogs can point
the way, WDFW may be able to
find breeding pairs. “I’m pretty
confident that this may move
us forward in the South Cas-
cades,” he said.
some of our key competitors
— Australia, Europe and Can-
ada” — before wheat prices
will rebound, said Darin New-
som, senior analyst for DTN
in Omaha, Neb. “There’s a
lot of things that have to hap-
pen. None of them seem like
they’re realistic at this point.”
Earlier in 2016, Newsom
wrote a column saying that
if the U.S. stopped planting
wheat and took itself out of
the global marketplace, there
would still be enough left to
meet world demand. The U.S.
produced roughly 62.9 million
metric tons of the 752 million
metric tons produced world-
wide this year, up from 735
million metric tons last year.
Such a scenario isn’t realis-
tic, Newsom said.
“The fear would be from
the global community that the
U.S. is trying to start a supply
scare,” he said. “Maybe that’s
what it takes.”
Dan Steiner, grain mer-
chandiser for Morrow County
Grain Growers in Boardman,
Ore., estimated that the world
needs a reduction of roughly
40 million to 50 million metric
tons — roughly the equivalent
of the total U.S. hard red win-
ter crop — for prices to return
to profitable levels.
Because of the large global
supply, average weather and
an average crop this year could
send prices 40 cents per bushel
lower, he said.
Farmers are raising wheat
on fewer total acres in the
U.S., said Byron Behne, mar-
keting manager for Northwest
Grain Growers in Walla Walla,
Wash.
But “the carryover supplies
are so big, that creates quite a
buffer,” Behne said.
The strong dollar is work-
ing against U.S. wheat grow-
ers.
Currently, one U.S. dollar
is worth roughly 117 Japanese
yen. In the past year, the value
of the dollar has been as low
as 99 Japanese yen. Japan is a
major buyer of U.S. wheat.
A strong dollar will mean
the U.S. industry will struggle
to move grain onto the global
market, Newsom said. Federal
Reserve interest rate hikes are
likely to continue to strength-
en the dollar, further putting
U.S. wheat at a disadvantage,
he said.
Newsom doesn’t see
much evidence yet that Presi-
dent-elect Donald Trump will
be positive for agriculture, cit-
ing Trump’s plans to slap tar-
iffs on Chinese imports, which
would result in retaliation;
breaking the North Ameri-
can Free Trade Agreement
with Mexico and Canada; and
scuttling the Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade deal, which
would work against Japan and
increase China’s role in Asia’s
export and import markets.
“So far what we’ve heard
could possibly disrupt trade
with our first, second, third
and maybe four out of the top
five trading partners we have
globally when it comes to U.S.
grain,” Newsom said. “Maybe
it was all just bluster, none of
it’s true and maybe none of it’s
going to happen, but certainly
his statements and his position
seems to be anti-ag industry.”