Rejecting the Tax Increase & More Comments Wanted for GIPSA

Rejecting the Tax Increase & More Comments Wanted for GIPSA plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The comment period on the GIPSA rule ended back in November - with more than 60-thousand comments made - but Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the USDA is now conducting an economic analysis. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall says NCBA - through its own economic analysis - found the rule would result in 837-million dollars in losses. Though Woodall says it’s good that the USDA is carrying out an analysis - he is worried that Vilsack’s refusing to allow further comment on the rule.

WOODALL: Given the huge impact this rule will have on the bottom line for cattlemen, we need to see the rule. We ask that Secretary Vilsack give us and all other stakeholders an opportunity to review and comment on the analysis.

Voters in Idaho's largest school district last week rejected a property tax increase to help offset budget cuts in Meridian classrooms. The $18.5 million, two-year supplemental levy failed Tuesday amid opposition from tea party activists and was among a slew of education funding issues that went before taxpayers across Idaho with mixed success. One school official said the defeat of a $571,903 supplemental levy means the district will have to trim at least two positions and students might have to start paying a fee to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

Surely “politicians gone wild” was not the intent of Michelle Obama’s fight against childhood obesity. But you know what they say about the path to you know where being paved with good intentions. From the banning of chocolate milk in schools to the recent suggestion by an Illinois state senator that parents of overweight children be denied the standard tax deduction on their tax returns Obama’s initiatives to combat the problem of childhood obesity have resulted in a runaway train that doesn’t show signs of slowing down any time soon. She has said she hopes one of her legacies will be her work in reducing childhood obesity; commendable yes, but by involving the federal government in an effort to enforce her “Let’s Move” campaign the possibility of violated personal freedoms becomes a very real threat. When the government decides what we will eat or not eat, when schools deny parents the right to provide their own children’s lunches, or when school’s line children up for mandatory body mass index testing and single individual children out in front of their peers, we have crossed the line. Not quite the legacy Ms. Obama was hoping for I’m sure.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.