Farm
bill becomes fodder in 'fiscal cliff' wrangling [NPR]
Among
the loose ends that lawmakers would like to tie up before the end of this
lame-duck session is the farm bill, which is made up mostly of crop subsidies
and food stamps. The last farm bill expired in September. The Senate has passed
a new one; the House has not. Farm-state lawmakers are urging leaders to
include a farm bill as part of any budget deal to avert year-end tax increases
and spending cuts….The SNAP component is the biggest chunk of the farm bill.
But it's not only food-stamp recipients and small and midsized farmers who
benefit from a farm bill. So, too, will the big farmers who plant crops like
corn; they get subsidies in the measure. And that's one reason why Scott Faber
of the Environmental Working Group says Congress shouldn't toss a farm bill
into some kind of giant package aimed at avoiding the fiscal cliff, which would
very likely stifle debate and amendments.
Estate
tax among those to rise if no deal is reached [New York Times]
Like
so many other provisions of the tax code, estate taxes are caught up in the
tangle of competing proposals in the rush to a year-end resolution of the
nation’s fiscal problems. Absent an agreement before the end of the year,
inheritance taxes are set to jump significantly in 2013, potentially drawing in
tens of thousands of estates which otherwise would escape taxation….Such a big
tax hike may be unlikely, as most Republicans and many Democrats staunchly
oppose taxation of family wealth as it passes between generations, and would
likely seek at the very least to temporarily extend the current, relatively
generous provisions pending a broader review of tax policies. If there is a
compromise, it’s impossible to know its terms yet.
San
Francisco water sale deal with Oakdale is off [Modesto Bee]
The
wet start to the storm season has prompted San Francisco to back off a plan to
buy water from the Oakdale Irrigation District for 2013. City and district
officials said Tuesday that they will instead work on a contract that would
make the water — about 1 percent of the OID's average annual supply — available
for 2014. San Francisco was seeking 2,240 acre-feet of water as a dry-year
supplement to its Tuolumne River system, which serves about 2.6 million people
in four Bay Area counties.
Opinion: San Francisco's
environmental hypocrisy exposed [Sacramento Bee]
San
Francisco, it could be said, is the nation's capital of trendy environmentalism
– as long as it affects someone else. This became very evident a few years ago
when it was suggested – in a series of Bee articles, among other places – that
San Francisco should give up its exclusive water supply from the Hetch Hetchy
Valley in Yosemite National Park, allowing it to be restored to its natural
state.…Last month, San Francisco voters rejected a local ballot measure that
would have required a feasibility study for restoring Hetch Hetchy. Virtually
every local political leader opposed the measure, including Mayor Ed Lee, who
called it "really stupid."…While its politicians were complaining
about outsiders meddling in the city's water supply, they were busily pushing
legislation aimed at forcing the folks in suburban Solano County to continue
receiving San Francisco's garbage.
SoCal
water district supports raising of Shasta Dam [Redding Record Searchlight]
The
Metropolitan Water District voted Tuesday to make raising Shasta Dam one of its
legislative priorities for 2013, a move some state water watchers said is
another step by the Southern California agency to go after more north state
water. The district's board of directors voted to "support
administrative/legislative actions to remove existing prohibitions for state
funding to raise Shasta Dam," according to a board report listing its
proposed state legislative priorities.…District spokesman Bob Muir said the
district backs raising the dam as part of its conceptual support for greater
water storage in the state. He said he did not know what the state funding
prohibitions were.…The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has for many years considered
raising Shasta Dam. The project would cost an estimated $1.07 billion,
according to a draft feasibility report that was released in February. The
report also says the status of the McCloud River is one of two unresolved
issues surrounding the proposal to raise the dam up to 18½ feet.
Most
of California's water footprint tied to food production [Los Angeles Times]
…The
report, released Tuesday by the Oakland-based think tank, takes a look at the
amount of water required to produce the goods Californians consume, whether
it’s the food we eat or the things we buy; whether they are produced in state
or imported from other states or foreign countries. California's total water
footprint is about 64 million acre-feet, or 20 trillion gallons of water, per
year, according to the study. More than half of that is used to produce goods
that are imported and consumed here.…The biggest piece by far – 93% -- is tied
to agricultural production, both food that is imported from out of state or
grown, produced and consumed in state. (California’s agricultural exports are
not counted.) Thanks to the large amounts of water required to grow animal
feed, meat and dairy products have an especially big footprint.
Ag
Today is distributed to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for
information purposes, by the CFBF Communications/News Division, 916-561-5550; news@cfbf.com.
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