The Florida House Ways & Means Committee is proposing an ag tax-cut package for Florida agriculture.

 

Hurricane Irma did a lot of damage to Florida agriculture last September. Few sectors of Florida agriculture remained unscathed. Growers and producers are awaiting federal disaster relief, but The Florida House Ways & Means Committee is looking into an ag tax-cut package to help those in Florida ag impacted by Hurricane Irma receive a measure of relief, according to a Citrus Industry article. See details below.

Irma’s Damages

 

Damages to Florida agriculture by Hurricane Irma were estimated to be around $2.5 billion. The breakdown of the damages are estimated to be:

  • citrus industry: $761 million
  • nursery industry: $624 million
  • cattle industry: $237.5 million
  • sugar industry: $383 million
  • vegetable and non-citrus fruit: $180 million

Details of an Ag Tax-Cut Package

 

The Florida House Ways & Means Committee looked at three different options that could be a part of an ag tax-cut package. “They’re not huge, life-altering impacts, but they do help farmers stretch the dollars they do have to spend to recover,” said Adam Basford, director of state affairs for the Florida Farm Bureau. “What we can do here at the state is help farmers stretch the dollars they can in recovery.”

The three options include:

  • one-time tax refunds on fencing and building materials for non-residential farm buildings.
  • refunds on state and local taxes applied to fuel used to transport agriculture products from farms to processing and packaging facilities.
  • value at salvage level machinery that has gone idle at citrus packing and processing. facilities because of Hurricane Irma or because of citrus greening disease.

Rep. Ben Albritton, a citrus grower himself, and who offered one of the proposals, said “If you have a packing house that is shut down, some of these packing houses would have employed 100 people, maybe more.” “If you hope and pray like I do that we’ll somehow, some way soon we’re going to find the bottom of citrus production in the state and we’ll turn it around and start growing again, those packing houses would have the opportunity to be operational again. If they go in foreclosure and the bank owns them, what’s the good for the property owner.”

Griffin Fertilizer is committed to helping both growers and ranchers make sound agronomic and economic decisions in order to maximize the health of their grove and pasture. As a full-service custom dry & liquid fertilizer blender and crop protection product distributor, we will continue our mission to further advance Florida agriculture. For questions or concerns about your farm or pasture, contact us and one of our team will be in touch.