The Wyoming Farm Bureau says as Congress puts final touches on the Farm Bill it has good things for Wyoming.
If signed into law, the bill would continue the Environmental Program Incentive Program, which is funding that provides incentives for farmers and ranchers to implement sound conservation practices and help protect resources.
The bill would also provide disaster relief to agricultural producers who have been impacted by severe weather, such as loss of stock from blizzards.
Importantly for Wyoming counties, the bill restores PILT, or payment in lieu of taxes. PILT allows the federal government to pay counties for public land, which is not taxable.
Farm Bureau President Ken Hamilton says that any law can have problem parts. “In any piece of legislation there are certainly some things in there that can prove to be a gotcha later on,” he says.
But Hamilton says a major benefit of the bill is the certainty of knowing what’s next. “I think there’s just going to be some certainty there that we know which way we’re headed, and that’s certainly going to add some things to make our agriculture producers a little better off.”
Hamilton says the last Farm Bill expired two years ago, and the new one has been in flux since then.
