Unfair tax caps to nail Indiana farmers

  Indian farmers have been hit hard this year. From a late planting season to a late and wet harvest. But now the Indiana legislature is hitting them from the economic section. A new bill proposal on property tax caps, set to be an amendment in the state constitution, gives them even more to fear. Unlike most business enterprises, farmers will be given three tax caps.

   [q url=http://www.examiner.com/x-21521-Huntington-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m12d2-Triple-tax-rates-to-hit-Indiana-farmers.htm"] Most businesses in Indiana applaud the new tax caps. However, there is one industry in the state that has said no to their elected officials. The farmers of Indiana are rallying against the proposed caps. They say the caps, as listed in the bill, are unfair because instead of one rate, they get hit with one for the property the home sits on, another for production acreage and another for assets. The things farmers own and use fall in all three categories of the tax caps -- property taxes on farmhouses are capped at 1 percent of their assessed values like other owner-occupied homes, but farmland is capped at 2 percent, like rental property, while farm equipment is capped at 3 percent, like other business property. [/q]

  This will make one wonder about the effects elsewhere. Indiana is one of the largest producers of corn, soybean, beef and pork. This area, Huntington, is an agriculture area. We have multiple feed operations as well as a dairy. With this new tax cap idea of taxing the farmer on three different levels, what will happen to the family farm? How will this affect the trade on futures? And most important to all citizens, how will it affect our grocery bill?

   Then there are other areas that could take a hit. Future Farmers of America, the different seed companies' summer detassling programs, agriculture classes in college and high school.

  Over the past two to three decades we have seenthe farmers take huge hits. From the mass foreclosures of the eighties to eco laws of the nineties. Imports of foreign food supplies, drought, floods. diseases (mad cow, e.coli), drops in the market and CAFO's. Now Indiana has this triple threat.

  Charlie Daniels said in his song 'American Farmer', "If the man don't work, the people don't eat". That is the truth. Think about it. without food, nobody survives. Besides everyting else that has happened, the Indiana elected body has seen fit to start taxing the farmer out of business.

  Willie Nelson.....we need your help once again.