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Fri, 23 May 2008
Asphalt vs. Milk? Which side are you on?
I'm writing this on the kitchen table, and as I look to my right, there's a carton of Rhody Fresh milk. My family drinks it because we like the idea of our food coming from as close to home as possible, and because we like to support local businesses if we can.
This isn't just a commercial plug; it's a serious story about agriculture. There are many fewer farms in our state than there used to be, and some of us think that's a problem deserving more attention than it gets. The way our towns levy taxes is putting farms out of business. As a farm, an acre of land is worth much less than it is as a house lot. Lots of towns have agricultural zoning, but few tax agricultural land at anything less than the value it would have if divided up into house lots.
The predictable result is the steady loss of farms in the state. Since World War II, we've lost about 80% of the land we had in agriculture, and most of it has been built on.
If, like me, you wonder where the food will come from when all our land has houses on it, you might find this worrisome. If, like me, you remember when a place called "Butternut Farm" was more likely to grow food than McMansions, you might also be worried. Especially if you liked it that way. (And, in case you're wondering, agriculture is still a $100 million piece of our state's economy.)
There is a solution, and it's to purchase the development rights to this land, and deed them to a land trust. Land without development rights can never be built on and so is worth less (though it's not worth zero), and it brings the taxes down closer to where farm income can cover them. In 2004, a DEM bond issue provided $15 million to purchase farmland development rights (among other things), and this has been the engine behind the Farmland Protection Program, which is what DEM calls it.
Typically, the state funding represents less than a third of the funding necessary to secure the rights, but it is also commonly the first funding that makes the rest possible. After that, it's up to towns and local land trusts to scrounge what they can. In other words, it's a pretty good deal for the state, allowing us to leverage a lot of private (and some federal) funding with a minimal investment. It's popular with towns, too. Sounds pretty good? Too bad. The program appears to be another casualty of the 2008 budget fiasco.
According to DEM, that fund is down to a balance of about $70 now, and as of January there were 23 more farms approved for preservation, including Schartner's farm in Exeter and North Kingstown and Harmony Farm in Glocester. Another 19 farms have applied, and are awaiting evaluation by DEM. The Governor's budget did not include even the possibility of a bond referendum on the subject in the fall, and there is no obvious support for it in the Assembly quarters that matter. As of last week, 20 towns had endorsed the idea of putting such a referendum on the ballot this fall, but that may not be enough.
Contrast this with the Department of Transportation. Over the past 20 years, DOT has borrowed itself into a hole that would laugh at the puny attempts of my thesaurus to describe it -- if it could laugh. Instead it just yawns wider and wider each year. And yet, the Governor and Assembly show no sign of wanting to begin to close this hole. They're doing their part to make it bigger still. DOT is planning to borrow another $45 million in general obligation bonds next year -- just about as much as we'll pay in interest on past borrowing. If this sounds like using one credit card to pay off another, it is.
And that's not all. We'll also borrow another $75 million in the "GARVEE" bonds, which are to be repaid with future federal highway funds. Sadly, the repayment depends crucially on the next round of transportation funding being as large as the last. Congress has its own deficit problems, even despite the President trying to keep the cost of the war out of the budget. If our allocation of federal transportation money declines -- which seems likely to me -- we're in for a world of woe. For the sake of your children's schools, the prospects for health care reform, and everything else your state government does, you should be worried that Governor Carcieri has bet a lot of our fiscal future on Congress
So this is the way it works. We have two programs financed by debt here. One is a department that has, through out-of-control borrowing, acquired a debt load so crushing that it can't afford to fix I-95 in Pawtucket, one of the most heavily traveled bridges in the state, and an even bigger disaster looms ahead. The other is a tiny part of DEM, and has been able to parlay a modest amount of borrowing into the preservation of thousands of acres of farmland -- and keeping them working.
But according to the Governor and what I hear about House Finance, DOT is going to get everything it wants, including permission to borrow $120 million next year and a bond referendum on this fall's ballot worth $83.5 million more. The Farm program, though, is slated to be scrapped. Asphalt, I guess, is valuable. Corn and milk, not so much.
If you like the way this sounds, go ahead and do whatever you were going to do today. If you don't, call someone on House Finance to complain. Rep. Steven Costantino's office (he's the committee chair) is 222-8028, and the House Speaker's office is 222-2466.
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