Maryland Senate President Mike Miller addresses Calvert County Farm Bureau members.
Owings, MD – Legislators and county leaders from both sides of the aisle gave assurances to members of the Calvert County Farm Bureau that state elected officials have their backs. The discussion of the upcoming session of the Maryland General Assembly and the new year in general as it pertains to local government took place Monday evening, Jan. 4 at Mount Harmony United Methodist Church in Owings.
“Agriculture is the number one business in Maryland,” said Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. [D – District 27], who pointed out Governor Larry Hogan [R] received strong support from the state’s rural areas, Calvert County in particular. The senate leader urged bureau members to write to the governor and outline their priorities, assuring them Hogan wants to aid rural Maryland.
Calvert Farm Bureau President Susie Hance-Wells that both the state legislators and county commissioners have worked well recently with the agriculture community. “A lot of the big issues have been resolved,” she noted. Hance-Wells noted some of the issues that still need to be tackled include agricultural land preservation—specifically, county funding to keep the land preservation programs going.
Commissioners’ President Evan K. Slaughenhoupt Jr. [R – District 3] and Commissioner Pat Nutter [R – District 2], along with County Administrator Terry Shannon and Department of Community Planning and Building Director Tom Barnett where at the table to hear Hance-Wells told county officials to “honor your commitment” and fund the land preservation programs.
Calvert was a frontrunner in preserving farmland, a tactic that was dealt a severe blow by an economic recession during the latter part of the last decade. The situation got even more aggravating for landowners when the state legislature passed the Maryland Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2012—known better as The Septic Bill—limiting the number of residential lots on septic systems in rural areas.
Slaughenhoupt said county and state officials continue to work to resolve the issues related to “Tier 4,” the most restricted development area. The board president said agriculture land owners are having their property values taken away by the state without compensation.
Delegate Mark Fisher [R – District 27C] told attendees that zoning is supposed to occur at the local level but initiatives such as The Septic Bill and Plan Maryland “took that away from you.”
“As the economy improves, it will help this program [land preservation],” said Shannon. “There are a lot of things on the horizon that are going to help.”
One of the pending economic boosts mentioned by both Miller and Shannon is the controversial Dominion Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant Import project. Construction of a $3.8 billion liquefaction facility will continue through 2017.
During the unit’s first five years of operation Calvert County is expected to realize $40 million in additional tax revenue. Miller acknowledged there is a clamor locally to give long-delayed pay boosts to public school teachers, sheriff’s deputies and county government workers. “This [Cove Point project] is going to be the answer to a lot of those things,” he said.
Delegate Anthony J. “Tony” O’Donnell [R – District 29C] praised Hogan for his efforts to curb state spending. “Governor Hogan’s doing a great job,” said O’Donnell, who added that under the leadership of former Governor Martin O’Malley, state officials “overspent and overtaxed for several years.”
In response to a question from local Farm Bureau member Jamie Tiralla regarding the possibility of the county hiring a marketing specialist to aid local agriculture, Slaughenhoupt indicated Calvert’s Department of Economic Development needed to be more helpful to farmers and the commissioners would be addressing the issue this year. He said the current board is determined to treat agriculture “as a business.”
In response to a question from Farm Bureau member Mike Phipps about the possibility of establishing a “nutrient trading” program that local farmers could participate in, O’Donnell called the complex program “exciting.” The veteran lawmaker noted, however, that an attempt to set up a nutrient trading program in Maryland in 2008 “never got off the ground.”
O’Donnell also used the opportunity to effusively praise the progress of aquaculture in Maryland. “It’s really taking off,” said O’Donnell, who predicted farm-raised oysters would rival those that mature the traditional way in the Chesapeake Bay. “Look at oyster-growing,” he exhorted. “It offers great hope for the agriculture community.”
State Senator Steve Waugh [R – District 29] and Delegate Michael Jackson [D – District 27B] also attended the meeting, as did several representatives of Maryland Farm Bureau.
Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com
