Monday, March 3^rd at 8 a.m. the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee will be holding a hearing on SB 172 in room 2134 of the Nevada Legislative Building.  It would be extremely helpful for those who will be affected by the proposed changes in SB 172 to plan on attending or participating in the Monday Committee Meeting.  If you are not able to make the trip to Carson City to share your views on the bill, you can testify on the bill by phone.

The number to call in order to participate with testimony by calling (888) 475-4499.  When you connect on the phone you’ll be asked to provide the meeting ID.  That number to enter is 899 5509 5166 and press #.  When you prompted to give the Participant ID, press #.  The operator at the Legislative Building will ask for those who wish to testify in support of the bill (when the time comes) and those who wish to testify in support will be directed to Press * 9 on their phone to be entered into the queue.  The same opportunity will be offered to those who are in opposition (which is where we are)the same directions of pressing * 9 to enter the queue.  The director will instruct you when your turn comes to speak.  Normally, there is a 2-minute limit for those testifying to have their say.

It would also be very helpful to weigh in with the consequences of the agricultural exemption being taken away, by sending emails to the members of the committee…

The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee Members:

Senator Julie Pazina, Chair – email: Julie.Pazina@sen.state.nv.us

Senator Skip Daly, Vice Chair – email: Skip.Daly@sen.state.nv.us

Senator Melanie Scheible – email: Melanie.Scheible@sen.state.nv.us

Senator Roberta Lange – email: Roberta.Lange@sen.state.nv.us

Senator Edgar Flores – email: Edgar.Flores@sen.state.nv.us

Senator John Ellison – email: John.Ellison@sen.state.nv.us

Senator Lori Rogich – email: Lori.Rogich@sen.state.nv.us

We have also been encouraged that when emailing the committee members, that you also copy the committee staff – SenCL@sen.state.nv.us with your message in order to get your perspective in as part of the committee record.

As an information tool for you to review in providing an understanding of the legislation and to be used in your communications with committee members, we have prepared this background paper.

Nevada Farm Bureau spoke in favor of AB 9 as amended prompted by the amended language which provides more substantial protection for water rights being exploited by those interested in speculating. The bill was heard by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday, February 24^th.  Under current law there are ways for agricultural water rights to be temporarily transferred for wildlife or to improve the quality or flow of water for three years.  AB 9 seeks to allow for longer term “temporary” transfers.

In the same meeting of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, Nevada Farm Bureau also testified on AB 104 This bill also received significant proposed amendment language.

The primary portion of the proposed legislation involves the creation of a voluntary water purchase and retirement program.  Nevada Farm Bureau and other water stakeholders have been meeting and developing the language for the legislation for over a year-and-a-half.  It was officially brought forward by the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Natural Resources.  

Nevada Farm Bureau policy supports the benefits associated with cloud seeding and from this perspective, the Senate Natural Resources Committee were encouraged to pass SB 6 when they held their hearing on the bill on February 27^th.  SB 6 proposes to fund the Desert Research Institute $600,000 each year of the biennium for the purpose of carrying out a statewide cloud seeding program.

The bill is part of the package of legislation that gained approval for advancing to the legislature from the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Natural Resources.

Since our last newsletter, these bills which Nevada Farm Bureau is following have been introduced:

AB 265 – is primarily focused on establishing deadlines and timeframes for when various responsibilities of the State Engineer in notifying those involved with the decisions made in review of certain applications for a permit; providing certain deadlines for the State Engineer to approve or deny certain applications and extensions, review reports of conveyance and issue certain permits.  The primary sponsor for the legislation is Assemblymember Bert Gurr from Elko. He is joined by Assemblymembers Richard DeLong of Reno and Heidi Kasama of Las Vegas.

SB 233-was introduced by Senator Fabian Donate of Las Vegas.  There are large portions of the bill which are somewhat irrelevant to the policy objectives that Nevada Farm Bureau policy speaks to, however the section dealing with Home Feeds Nevada does fit within Farm Bureau policy.  We will be working with others interested in the bill to determine where solutions might fit.

The Senate Natural Resources Committee has a couple of interesting water bills on their March 6^th committee meeting agenda (Please embed this link 360.pdf with the highlighted wording).

SB 31 – is a proposal to give a federal agency that is a claimant of a vested water right the requirement for them to not participate with every other private sector person in filing their proof of the claim on or before the 2027 deadline that has been established by State law.  There is an attitude from the State Engineer’s office that the federal agencies don’t have to be treated like the private sector and that they are supposed to be exempted from the requirements that private claims have for filing vested water right paperwork.

SB 36- is the slimmed down version of the legislative efforts to establish a Legislative authorization for a voluntary buy-back and retirement program.  This is somewhat the companion version of AB 104, but only covers the proposal for the buy-back and retirement program (without the other elements in the Assembly version.  It is one of the bills that were submitted by the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Natural Resources.  Nevada Farm Bureau policy supports the establishment of a voluntary buy-back and retirement program in order to bring about balance in the number of over-appropriated and over-pumped groundwater basins.

In the second piece of a multiple series of American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Market Intel reports on the specifics of various components of renewing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, associate economist Samantha Ayoub delves into the importance of 199A Section provisions.

“With over 98 percent of farms and ranches operating as pass-through entities, few farm operators benefitted from the permanent decrease in corporate tax rates.” Ayoub writes in conclusion, adding “To provide some parity for small businesses, including farmers and ranchers, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act created the Section 199A qualified business income deduction.”

”More than 850,000 farms and ranches nationwide have a lower tax bill under the provision, and out of all the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax provisions, 199A’s expiration could cause the single largest tax increase for farm and ranch families in 2026.”