Hebron Republican

By PAMELA Z. SAWYER

January 24, 2010

Majority legislators turned their backs on struggling family farms at a time when the state needs to do all it can to help save them. Thankfully, the governor's office understood the financial pressure on farmers who want to leave their farms to the next generation.

In mid-December, Democratic lawmakers voted to postpone a change to the Connecticut estate tax that passed in the legislature just two months earlier, a change that would have exempted all estates valued up to $3.5 million.

The postponement would have meant estates valued as low as $2 million would remain taxable at the state level. That would prove devastating to some family businesses, saddling children of farm owners with hefty bills when their parents die. And that would increase the likelihood of farmland falling to eager developers, who would be viewed as safety valves by folks struggling to pay estate taxes (upward of $100,000 on a $2 million estate) they simply can't afford.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell rightly vetoed the majority party bill calling for the postponement. But there's more work to be done.

Increasing the estate tax threshold was a step in the right direction, yet farms in this state — most operated by people 55 and over — need more action from their leaders in Hartford. We should help the next generation of farmers keep their family businesses operating by exempting farms from the estate tax.

And we need to make that change sooner rather than later.

Nineteen dairy farms sold off their animals in 2009 because the federally set price they receive for milk barely covers the cost of feed for the cows.

And when we lose farms, we just don't get them back. Barely 10 percent of Connecticut's total land area remains in farm use, and that figure is decreasing at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, our state ranks among the top 10 states allowing farms to be converted for development—hardly a distinction to be proud of.

The value of preserving our remaining farms is enormous. They keep our countryside green, they produce locally grown and organic food, they contribute billions of dollars to our state economy, and they are truly a treasured part of our agricultural heritage.

Now is a difficult time for our state legislature. A ballooning budget quandary has tested everyone's mettle at the Capitol.

Residents, too, have seen their nerves frayed through business closures, job losses and increased costs for just about everything.

Lawmakers, though, accepted the headache when they sought office. It's our job to find solutions to economic problems in Connecticut, but in this case we shouldn't sacrifice our state's beautiful farmland and the future of this fragile family industry to do so.

It's smart to exempt farmers from estate taxes under $3.5 million, but it's smarter still to exempt working family farms from these taxes altogether. They feed us.

State Rep. Pamela Z. Sawyer, R-55th District, represents the towns of Andover, Bolton, Hebron and Marlborough.

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