What's New In Working Landscapes

May 15, 2012 - Chuck Ross, VT Agriculture Secretary, and Paul Costello, Executive Director of the VT Council on Rural Development, speak at the signing of the Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill. Governor Peter Shumlin signs the bill.

Vermont Reps. Carolyn Partridge and Will Stevens testify on H.496, the Working Landscape Enterprise Investment Bill, before the House Appropriations Committee.

Parallel bills to invest in rural economic development have cleared key hurdles in the House and the Senate, and the House version is scheduled for a vote Thursday.

The bills create a Working Lands Enterprise Fund, which would invest state money in grants and loans to businesses related to the rural economy, infrastructure like slaughter facilities and incubator kitchens, and direct services to businesses related to the farm, food, and forest economies.

The bills passed unanimously out of each chamber’s agriculture committees, but funding has been less unanimous. The House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to allocate $2.1 million for its version of the bill (H.496). It’s less than the $3 million originally in the bill, but supporters say the amount is sufficient to start needed state investment in rural economic development.

A coalition supporting the Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill grew out of the Council on the Future of Vermont, a 2007-2009 project of the Vermont Council on Rural Development. In over a dozen public forums and more than 100 focus groups plus surveys and other inputs, Vermonters consistently expressed their support for a strong economy for farm- and forest-based enterprises. On the surveys, the highest-ranked statement of values was “I value the working landscape and its heritage.”

Vermont Council for Rural Development now leads the Working Landscape Partnership, which supports these bills.

“If current trends continue, we could lose the working landscape within a generation,” VCRD executive director Paul Costello said in an interview before the session started.

The Council looked at the contradiction between the forest and fields landscape valued by Vermonters, according to its polls, and the decline in the forest and dairy economies.

“At the same time, we have a local foods movement that is growing rapidly. We’re first in the nation in per capita organic farm CSA development [and] farmers’ markets’ direct sales to consumers,” Costello said. “We have a great tradition in the forest products industry, a great deal of skill, beautiful hardwood forests that are very enviable globally. So tremendous assets to start with, but we believe that Vermont needs to look at these assets and determine that they are essential to our economic future and set as a priority the future of the working landscape economy as a foundation for the rest of the economy of the state.”

Rural economic development has also been the subject of informal study by the Legislature’s Rural Economic Development Working Group, created during Gaye Symington’s tenure as Speaker of the House.

The bill sets up a Working Landscape Enterprise Board to oversee the administration of the fund. The House and Senate versions of the bill set up the membership of the board differently, but in both cases, it’s a board that needs a meeting space considerably bigger than a breadbox. The House version sets it at 19 members, with 11 appointed by the existing Vermont Agriculture and Forest Products Development board. The Senate bill sets up a 24-member board, with the governor, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate Committee on Committees each appointing six. Those appointments are constrained by descriptions of the types of appointee, e.g., two of the governor’s appointees are to be “a person familiar with the agricultural or forest tourism industry” and “a member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont.”

In both bills, the main authority for rural economic development lies in the Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets rather than the Agency of Commerce and Community Development — though the Commerce secretary is named as a member of the board. Rep. Will Stevens, I-Shoreham, lead sponsor of the bill, is an organic farmer and member of the Agriculture Committee. He explained in an interview that the program is housed with the Agriculture Agency “because of the natural resource focus, our land-based focus. There are many opportunities and tools available on the commerce side of things, which is fine. We’re saying through this bill that in fact our natural resource base is worthy of that attention too. It’s not a silo-building or ‘either/or.’ It’s an ‘and’ situation.”

While Costello declined to make specific predictions about the number of jobs that the Working Lands bill would create, he pointed in a recent interview to a report just out from the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund’s Farm-to-Plate program, which counted 500 jobs created in one year in the state’s food and agriculture sector. With state money anticipated to pull in four to five times as much private investment, Costello said the new bill “leverages far beyond what we’ve had … in agriculture and forest products. I think we’re at the beginning of something that’s really big, really significant for the rural economy of the state.”

The House Appropriations Committee informally set aside $2.1 million to the bill on March 16, without examining the bill in detail. On Tuesday, Will Stevens and House Agriculture Committee chair Carolyn Partridge, D-Windham, testified to the Appropriations Committee about the bill, and the committee voted to appropriate the $2.1 million. The vote was along party lines, with the Democrats supporting the bill. (Kitty Toll, D-Danville, a supporter of the bill, was reportedly out of the Legislature responding to the killing of Melissa Jenkins, the St. Johnsbury teacher who was found dead earlier this week.)

Committee member Joe Acinapura, R/D-Brandon, supports the bill’s principle but voted against it on fiscal grounds. “The concept is good. It’s a job creator,” he said the day after the vote. However, he expects the shortfall to be greater than projected, and the House budget leaves $16 million in reserves — a figure he fears is inadequate. “If we’re going to put $2.1 million against a new initiative, even though it’s a great initiative, what are we going to take the money from? There are just too many uncertainties out there.”

The full House is scheduled to vote on the bill Thursday. So far, Costello has seen “general and broad interest” in it among legislators. “Everyone recognizes that this is the bill that steps forward,” Costello said. “There’s not another jobs bill.”

Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, has indicated that the Senate will take up work on the House bill rather than continue working on its own version.

Posted By Carl Etnier On March 28, 2012 @ 11:19 pm

Article printed from VTDigger: http://vtdigger.org

URL to article: http://vtdigger.org/2012/03/28/working-lands-investments-allocated-2-1-m...

Representatives Will Stevens and Tess Taylor are 2 of the sponsors of the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Investment Bill. Click HERE to listen to their conversation on the Mark Johnson Show.

January 22, 2012 -- Paul Costello and Rep. Will Stevens, I-Shoreham, join Darren Perron and Keith McGilvery to discuss Vermont's working landscape.

MONTPELIER, VT – Vermont Rural Jobs Bill Draws a Crowd: A legislative panel holding a public hearing on the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill found a statehouse room packed to capacity Wednesday evening, where more than 100 people turned out – most in support of the bill. Close to 40 testified, with all but a very few expressing enthusiasm for the bill. Carl Russell said, “It’s about time,” summing up the feelings of many in the room. At the same time, Russell lamented a missing word in the bill: “stewardship.” He asked the panel to make sure to focus on land stewardship as well as enterprise.

Tom Slayton noted that the working landscape did not just happen. It was made by “more than two centuries of toil and intelligence.” He added, “This bill is our best hope.”

David Zuckerman encouraged support for the bill saying that infrastructure investment and marketing is where the state can lead the way, and if it does, the private sector will step up.

Ted Ferris noted that the forest products industry has suffered for many years from an undeserved negative bias. Ferris said that the Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill helps to recognize the contribution that this sector makes to our economy.

Mike Rainville added that the forest products industry is the second largest sector of Vermont’s economy.

Several legislators attended the hearing to listen to the testimony, including members of the House and Senate Agriculture committees, the Senate Economic Development committee, the House Commerce committee, the House Ways and Means and Appropriations committees, and others.

The House and Senate Agriculture committees will continue to hold hearings on the bill in the coming weeks. More information about the bill and related activities can be found at www.vtworkinglands.org.

Four committees of the Vermont Legislature will host a public hearing on the Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill (H.496 / S.246) on Wednesday evening. Dozens of Vermonters are expected to testify in support of the bill.

WHAT: Public Hearing – Working Lands bill
WHO: House Agriculture and Commerce committees, Senate Agriculture and Economic Development committees, dozens of Vermont farm and forest entrepreneurs.
WHEN: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 – 6:30 pm
WHERE: Vermont Statehouse – Room 11

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Full room of Vermonters concerned with farm and forest vitality. Committee members and other legislators.

More information about the bill is availalbe here: http://vtworkinglands.org/programs/policy-councils/working-landscape/bill

Both the House and Senate Agriculture committees have hearings on the bill scheduled during the week, as well.

The Vermont Working Landscape Partnership (VWLP) is a non‐partisan and broad‐based effort to support local agriculture and forestry, grow and attract farm and forest entrepreneurs, and conserve Vermont’s Working Landscape far into the future. The Partnership’s members believe that all Vermonters benefit from the state’s working landscape and everyone should contribute to ensure its future.

Several Vermont lawmakers and advocates announced the introduction of the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill on Wednesday morning in the Vermont statehouse. After a presentation to the Rural Economic Development Caucus, representatives from the Vermont Working Lands Partnership, the Vermont Woodlands Association, the Vermont Natural Resources Council, and the Vermont Land Trust, as well as several Vermont lawmakers stood together in support of the bill.

Paul Costello, Executive Director of Vermont Council on Rural Development, speaking at podium. (Click the image to download it in a larger size.)

MONTPELIER, VT -- The House and Senate Agriculture Committees, the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee, and the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee of the Vermont legislature will hold a public hearing on the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Investment Bill (S. 246/ H. 496), which would create a Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Investment Fund and a board to oversee that fund. The bill also envisions a national marketing campaign celebrating and promoting Vermont's working lands economy, and planning tools to support enterprises related to agriculture and forest products.

The public hearing will be held at the Vermont Statehouse, Room 11, on Wednesday, January 18, 2012, from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm. All are welcome to come and testify. Those who want to speak will need to sign up when they arrive, and each speaker will be given 2 minutes. Written testimony is also welcome.

The Working Lands bill can be found here: http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2012/bills/Intro/S-246.pdf. The House and Senate bill are identical.

For further information contact:
Linda Leehman, assistant to Senate and House Agriculture Committees
lleehman@leg.state.vt.us
802-828-1628