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ALBANY, NY (WENY) — In an agricultural forum, Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul emphasized her state of the state proposals that aim to expand food access and agricultural infrastructure, and to increase food manufacturing and the investment tax credit.
Hochul said increasing the investment tax to 20% for farmers will be financially significant at a time when farmers continue to struggle with supply chain disruptions and increased labor costs.
“Let’s make it fully refundable for farms. This is a dramatic change but make it more lucrative for you to make these investments,” she said.
Some agricultural advocates, who have long been pushing for an increase to investment taxes, said this proposal will essentially allow farmers to maximize their investments on the farms and get money back for it.
“It’s a real incentive, a real economic shot in the arm for farmers to be able to buy new tractors, new equipment, expand their operations which is what any state wants businesses to do is expand, thrive, and grow,” said Jeff Williams, Director of Public Policy for the New York Farm Bureau.
While Williams said this agricultural proposal will be financially beneficial for farmers, he added that Hochul’s affordability proposal to index the minimum wage could be troublesome.
He said some farms may not be able to keep up with the cost of wages.
“Everybody wants to pay workers more, certainly farmers do but when our minimum wage is currently fifteen dollars an hour and then being indexed and our neighbors to the south, Pennsylvania—a major competitor, is less than half of that seven twenty-five, it’s extremely hard to be competitive,” he said.
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