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New York Farm Bureau News Bytes
#3: Interview with Renée St. Jacques on the 2025 Legislative Session - 7/9/25
00:16:43
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A
Welcome to News Bites.
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Today we are in beautiful Geneva, New York, on the shores of Seneca Lake. And I will be speaking to Renee St Jacques, who is the acting Director of Public Policy for New York Farm Bureau. Welcome, Renee.
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Thank you for having me.
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B
Of course. First, tell us a little bit about what you do for Farm Bureau.
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So at New York Farm Bureau, I am on a team, a public policy team. There are four of us who work together and we work on there's some of us who work on state issues, and then we have one person who works on federal issues as acting director. I am the point person. But honestly, we are a team. We all work on different issue areas. And so we all have our are specific issues that we're really doing a lot of research into and following the legislation so we can make sure that we're not missing anything that's impacting agriculture, which is a lot.
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B
Definitely a lot. And of course, now that legislative session has ended in Albany, what can you say about how it affected agriculture in general for New York? How did it go for agriculture?
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A
It was a good legislative session for agriculture. We, we did really well in the budget. In the state budget, there were a lot of good programs funded, some new program funding. And then since it was a late budget, we maybe didn't have as many bills passed that we wanted in agriculture. But we also, there was less time for the bills that we were concerned about to pass, and so we were able to stop those. So overall, I think it was a really good legislative session.
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Great.
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What about some?
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Tell us some major wins.
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Well, and we have Senator Hinchey and Assemblywoman Lepardo to thank our Assembly Agriculture Committee chair and Senate Agriculture Committee chairs for all of their support and help. And then also the governor as well for her help in making sure that the state budget had adequate funding for all the programs, all the agricultural programs and environmental programs that impact our farmers across the state. We one that was really, really important was the farm Workforce Retention Tax credit. So that was going to expire at the end of this year. And so we needed to make sure it got extended in the budget. Currently it's at $1,200 per eligible employee. So if a farm retains an employee for a year and they work a certain amount of hours, they get this tax credit. And so that was included in the final state budget. And so that will be extended until 2029. And and so we'll be, of course, working in the future to try to keep getting that extended because that really helps our farmers with all the increase in labor costs over the years. It's really important that they have this tax credit to rely on. Help them out. Great. Another one that's labor related as well is the farm worker housing revolving loan fund. That loan fund is a revolving loan so farmers can utilize that loan fund to get no interest loan to help help build farm worker housing, but also refurbish farm worker housing, which we know is so important in keeping the people who are working on the farms healthy and safe, a good place to live in. And that fund had been depleted over the years. It's being paid back, but it was just overutilized. And so we needed more funding to be put into that line in the budget. And thank goodness the governor and the legislature supported that and put another 5 million in in the state budget. So that was another labor related one. Also the overtime tax credit, which was passed last year, that helps cover the costs. Of course, farmers are now our employers. Farm employers are paying over time. And that tax credit, unfortunately when the law passed did not include certain types of farms. And so it was if you were like a corporate entity or you were utilizing outside labor for human resources and payroll, it wasn't covering all of that. So that fix was in the final state budget. So now everyone can utilize that tax credit. And I'll just. The state unemployment insurance debt had been an issue since 2020, when unemployment insurance, of course there was a lot of people utilizing that through the pandemic. And the state had taken out a loan from the federal government to help with that. And New York, and I think there was another state that hadn't paid off that debt up until this year. And so there was a surcharge to employers, all businesses that they had to pay. And our farmers were included in that. And so it was great to see in the final state budget, the state paid off that loan, paid off that debt. And so now there won't be that surcharge that our farmers have to pay and other business owners.
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And what about some bills that we oppose? What did you stop from passing or what did farm bureau help stop from passing?
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There were, like I said, with the late state budget, it did help us. The legislature didn't have as much time to debate and try to pass these bills that we had concerns with. One of them is the temp act. So the, the temperature extreme mitigation plan. It pretty much would say if you're doing outside work and this impacts farms for outside work out in the fields, especially if it gets over 80 degrees, the farms, the employers have to incorporate these Plans for mitigation, helping the people who are working outside in that weather. And they do already do that. They provide water, they provide shade. But this bill currently as written, would be more paperwork for them to have a plan. Also, it made it so the farmers had to know when someone was having a health impact on being outside in the hot weather. And our farmers just are equipped to be able to judge that. And I think that. So we're going to be working with the assembly sponsor and try to come up over the summer with some amendments to that bill to make it workable. We've been working with nicam, the New York center for Agricultural Medicine Health, and they have a lot of resources to give to farmers to say this is what you need to do to help your employees when there's extreme temperatures. And I think the more we can use that resource and hopefully make some amendments to the bill that's workable. So that one did not pass. And we're looking forward to talking with the sponsors, the legislative sponsors over the summer on that. The other one, of course, is the epr, which has a new name now, of course, but the Packaging Reduction Recycling Infrastructure Act. And that one's been around for years now. And there's a lot of pushback in the business community because of the responsibility it's going to put on the producers of packaging. But farms are included in that. And there were some exemptions in the bill, but it didn't go far enough to exclude everyone, to exclude all of the dairy cooperatives. And the way the bill's written, it just wasn't going to be workable and it was just going to add costs. And so we're happy to see that didn't pass. Again, we're looking forward to talking with the legislative sponsors over the summer and the fall, and hopefully we can get some more exemptions and amendments made to that.
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B
So, in other words, you see some compromise ahead.
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That's what we're always trying to do. We want to be part of the solution. And, you know, our farmers work really hard to take care of our environment, to take care, to incorporate new ideas and take on new things on their farm and make things better for their employees, for the environment. I mean, look at this lake behind us. There are farms around here and they work really hard to keep good water quality. I mean, they enjoy these, these, these lakes as much as everyone else. And so I think that that's important to keep in mind that the farmers are also part of their consumers, they're part of the public, they're Part of the community. And they want to make sure that we're. We're keeping our. Our land and our. And our resources viable for the future. Right.
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So. So going back to all of this, you know, legislation and the budget, Farm Bureau, of course, is all about grassroots policies. So tell us a little bit about the system. How does it work at Farm Bureau?
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Well, we have a really robust and grassroots policy development program. And when I compare to other organizations that maybe have a committee, a policy committee, or a small group of people that donate to the organization, they make those decisions on the positions you take, that organization takes on bills and different ideas and legislation. We are different at New York Farm Bureau. And that's what I love about my job, is that the farmers are deciding on what I advocate for. And so during the summer, our farmers will be meeting and talking about policy development. What should we be supporting? What should we be trying to change in state law? And at these meetings, they will bring forward, okay, we support this, this, and this. We support this change or we oppose this proposed change. Because during the legislative session in the past few months, my team and I have been writing down new things that have come up. I mean, we look at the biosolids and issue that has been talked about now for the past probably a couple months of legislative session. And we really, right now, New York Farm Bureau doesn't have policy on that. And so that's one of the questions we are putting to our farmers. How do you feel that. Do you think this practice of spreading biosolids on farmland should keep happening? Do you think that there should be testing all of these questions? That's what they will be talking about in the summer, and then in the fall and the winter, they will be voting on these. The county farm bureaus put forward the policies, but then we have voting delegates who go to state convention in December. They debate these issues, just like the assembly or the Senate, any of our legislative bodies do. They get up and debate these ideas and proposals and then vote on them. I mean, you can't get more grassroots than that. And I think that's what makes New York Farm Bureau so unique.
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What about an example of that? Is there something you can think of where an idea maybe at a regional or local level eventually became policy?
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I think that there are many. There are many ways that that happens. And sometimes it doesn't happen overnight. Some members will. Our Farm Bureau members, Farmers will bring up an idea during a summer policy development session, and that policy will make it all the way to the floor. The debate on the State convention and pass. And then as policy staff, we introduce that legislation. And it can take a year, a few years for something to happen, for it to get that much momentum in the legislature for everyone, the legislators to understand the issue and then eventually pass the bill. And sometimes it'll happen a year. We did have with the. There is a. In this past year, we had an issue come up where the. So maple syrup producers are exempt from certain licensing requirements when it comes to food processing because you're. You're taking the maple SAP, boiling it, and then you make maple syrup and you don't. Do not have to get a license to do that. And there are other tree syrups now that are being produced and beech birch syrup. And in the past, last year it was found out that they were not exempt from that licensing. And so there was policy passed at New York Farm Bureau state convention that supported exempting them from that license. There was a bill introduced, then it passed. It just passed the Senate and the assembly. So it'll go to the governor for her signature hopefully before the end of the year. And then that solves that issue where now the people who are producing birch syrup or beach syrup do not. They're on the same level ground as the maple syrup producers. And so that's a. It seems really simple, but that's how our process works. There are others that have taken more years. The farm worker housing revolving loan fund, that was an issue that was brought up a few years ago where the fund had depleted and needed more money. It took us a couple years of talking with the governor's office and the legislature to convince them that this was a real issue. And then we finally got that in the budget this past year. So I think some issues can be solved right away and some others take some time.
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It also shows that Farm Bureau is concerned with the smallest of commodities, up to the largest, maybe dairy farms. If you're dealing with maybe a tiny producer of beach syrup, they get the same level of attention at policy sessions that a larger commodity would. So that's an important thing.
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That's why important we have the staff to be able to work on that and follow all of these issue areas and make sure that we are representing everyone. And I think that's really tough to do and we certainly don't take it for granted. We try to make sure that we're supporting and representing all of the different commodities and all the different size farms because New York is very diverse in its agriculture and that's unique when compared to other states. And we want to make sure that we, we are representing everyone at New York Farm Bureau.
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What about next year? What's on tap?
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Well, we have a few bills that did go through policy development when it came. There's one that was an equine industry board that wanted, our members wanted to be to form that on the state level because there's so many different equine groups in this industry in New York, you have the people who are doing racing, but then you also have those who are doing horse boarding, those who are giving lessons, riding lessons. And it's really tough to represent everyone. And we try to do that at New York Farm Bureau. But the equine community in our membership at New York Farm Bureau wanted something on the state level that was a board, an advisory board that could meet and bring in also the rescue organizations as well and say, okay, what do we need to change in the state law? What does the eco industry need? So that bill was introduced and started moving through some of the Senate, the Assembly committees and gained some traction. So we'll be working on that next year. There's also a bill that our members wanted to expand the definition of agritourism because these farmers try to diversify what they're producing on their farms, but also bring in other types of income and keep their farm going. They're going to be having people on their farm visiting and teaching, educating the public on different things. And so we want to expand that definition so that there's a little more support for all of the types of agritourism in New York. So we'll be working on those bills. And I'm sure that, like said, policy development will happen this summer. There'll be other issues that get brought up, and our policy book is pretty thick right now, but there's always new things to add and change. And I'm sure we'll get some more marching orders from our members this fall.
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Well, it's a lot to keep track of. So we thank you for all the work you're doing for Farm Bureau and for all the farms, whether they're the tiniest little farms or the largest farms all across New York State, New York City and everywhere. So thank you. Thanks for joining us.
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Thank you.
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