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2007 Regular Session Highlights
Agriculture/Rural
Development
by: Greg
Waddell
(225) 342-3565
ALTERNATIVE FUELS
Several pieces of legislation this session dealt with the burgeoning issue of
alternative fuels such as ethanol and bio-diesel. House Bill 852 by
Representative Daniel (pending House Ways and Means) repeals the repeals the
minimum ethanol and bio-diesel standards for gasoline and diesel which requires
the use of a certain percentage of alternative renewable fuel when the
production of alternative renewable fuels reached a specified threshold. The
minimum ethanol and bio-diesel standards were enacted into law pursuant to Act
313 of the 2006 Regular Session. In addition, this legislation provides for tax
credits to a manufacturer or producer of biofuel in this state from Louisiana
income or corporation franchise taxes as an incentive for the development of the
ethanol, bio-diesel, and alternative renewable fuel industry and agricultural
production in this state. The tax credit is in the amount of twenty cents per
gallon for bio-diesel, ethanol, and alternate renewable fuel not produced from
cellulose and thirty cents per gallon for ethanol, bio-diesel, and alternative
renewable fuel produced from cellulose. Additionally, the credit would only
apply to the first 25 million gallons produced at each facility for each taxable
year. House Bill 551 by Representative Strain (pending House Ways and Means)
also provides for the same tax credits without repealing the minimum ethanol and
bio-diesel standards.
House Bill 576 by Representative Tucker (pending House Agriculture) repeals
the minimum ethanol and bio-diesel standards for gasoline and diesel which
requires the use of a certain percentage of alternative renewable fuel when the
production of alternative renewable fuels reached a specified threshold. The
minimum ethanol and bio-diesel standards were enacted into law pursuant to Act
313 of the 2006 Regular Session.
ANIMALS
Livestock
Senate Bill 246 by Senator Cain (involuntarily deferred-Senate Agriculture)
known as the "Farm Freedom Act" prohibits the state of Louisiana from accepting
federal funds for the purpose of participating in the United States Department
of Agriculture National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The NAIS is a
national information system that is aimed at helping producers and animal health
officials respond quickly and effectively to animal health events in the United
States. At this point in time participation in the program by the states is
optional and only a handful of states participate.
Pets
House Bill 630 by Representative Triche (pending House Final Passage)
creates the Louisiana Animal Shelter Fund and Commission which has a stated
mission of helping to protect the residents and animals owned by residents of
the state of Louisiana from loss due to disease or injury caused by the
overpopulation of and lack of control of dogs and coats within the state. Under
this legislation the Louisiana Animal Shelter Commission would impose a tax of
twenty cents per ton on all manufacturers of pet food who sell their pet food in
the state. The proceeds of this tax would then go to the various parishes to
fund or establish any of the following: (1) programs for the housing, feeding,
maintenance or euthanasia of stray or previously owned dogs and cats, (2)
programs which will acquaint owners with the regulations and proper techniques
of responsible pet ownership, or (3) programs to reduce pet animal
overpopulation through the use of surgical techniques which are made available
to the public through arrangements with local, private practicing veterinarians
within each parish.
Animal Cruelty
Louisiana is the last state in the nation which does not prohibit cockfighting.
Several bills this session attempted to prohibit the practice of cockfighting,
including House Bill 101 by Representative Strain (pending House
Agriculture), House Bill 108 by Representative Richie (Act 425), Senate Bill 39
by Senator Lentini (pending House Agriculture), and Senate Bill 221 by Senator
Lentini (Act 223). Senate Bill 39 creates the crime of cockfighting
which is the causing of two or more roosters to engage in fighting. This
legislation provides that cockfighting is to be considered as cruelty to animals
and carry the same punishment. In addition, the legislation further
criminalizes the transportation of any gamecock for the purpose of having the
animal engage in a cockfight or organizing, promoting, or conducting any
cockfight and provides that those found in violation shall be charged with a
misdemeanor.
House Bill 108 broadens the scope of the crime of cruelty to animals to
encompass cockfighting. This legislation creates the crime of organizing or
conducting a commercial or private cockfight, wherein there is a display of
combat or fighting among one or more domestic or feral chickens and in which it
is intended or reasonably foreseeable that the chickens would be injured,
maimed, mutilated, or killed. The legislation further prohibits persons from
possessing, training, purchasing, or selling any chicken with the intent that
the chicken engage in an unlawful cockfight. The penalties under this framework
would consist of a first offense misdemeanor, and conviction of a second or
subsequent offense would be a felony. The legislation provides for a one year
phase out period and becomes effective on August 15, 2008, and this is the
major difference in this legislation from Senate Bill 39 which provides
for immediate effectiveness and no phase out period.
Senate Bill 221 creates the crime of gambling or wagering at cockfights
which is the aiding or abetting or participation in any game, contest, lottery
or contrivance, in any location where a cockfight is being conducted and whereby
a person risks the loss of anything of value in order to realize a profit. This
legislation provides that a person who commits the crime of gambling or wagering
at a cockfight shall be fined not more than $500 or imprisoned for not more than
6 months, or both, and upon a second or subsequent offense the person shall be
fined $1,000 or imprisoned for not more than 1 year, or both. In addition, the
legislation provides that whoever conducts, finances, manages, supervises,
directs, or owns all or part of a business or premises when the person has
knowledge that gambling or wagering at a cockfight occurs shall be fined not
more than $20,000 or imprisoned with or without hard labor, for not more than 5
years, or both.
AGRICULTURAL TAX CREDITS
Transportation of Agricultural Commodities
Several pieces of legislation provide for tax credits against income tax to
offset the cost of transportation of commodities from the field to the first
point of processing. Senate Bill 350 by Senator Nevers (pending Senate
Revenue & Fiscal Affairs) grants a tax credit against individual or
corporate income tax to the taxpayer who bears the cost of transporting the
commodity in an amount equal to five cents per ton per mile the commodity is
transported within the state from the point of harvest to the point of
delivery. This legislation would apply to those commodities in which the
producer, owner, or processor can produce a scale ticket or point of delivery
invoice which reflects the weight of the commodity and the point of delivery.
Senate Bill 357 by Senator Nevers (pending Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs)
also provides for a tax credit against individual or corporate income tax to the
taxpayer who bears the cost of transporting a commodity in an amount of 2.5
cents per mile the commodity is transported within the state. This tax credit
would be taken by farmers of agricultural commodities that cannot produce a
scale ticket or other point of delivery invoice which reflects the weight of the
commodity and the point of delivery. The legislation provides that the
Department of Revenue is to promulgate rules and regulations which require the
farmer to submit documentation with their returns or to specifically retain such
records that will enable the department to determine the taxpayer's eligibility
for and amount of the tax credit claimed.
Farm Income
House Bill 206 by Representative Jack Smith (pending House Ways and Means)
provides for a deduction from the individual income tax for farm income. This
exemption would be effective for the taxable periods beginning on January 1,
2007 and ending on December 31, 2010.
Milk
House Bill 901 by Representative Richie (substitute-adopted on House Floor)
provides for a refundable tax credit against any Louisiana income tax and the
corporate franchise tax for a taxpayer engaged in the business of producing milk
for sale and the USDA Class I price of fluid milk in Louisiana drops below the
production price at any time during the taxable year. The legislation also
provides for establishment of a production price which includes such factors as
the price of milk from the top five states from which milk is imported into
Louisiana, the average transportation cost of importing milk from those five
states, and the cost of production in the state of Louisiana. Each qualifying
taxpayer would be eligible for a ten thousand dollar tax credit based on the
production and sale of the first five hundred thousand pounds of milk sold below
the production price over a calender year.
Farm Equipment
Several pieces of legislation this session provide for refundable tax credits or
state sales tax exemptions for the purchase of farm equipment. House Bill 29
by Representative Morrish (Act 424) amends the current law, which only
imposes the state sales and use tax on the sale of farm equipment to that
portion of the sale price in excess of $50,000, to allow the full purchase price
of applicable farm equipment to be exempt from the state sales and use tax.
Senate Bill 26 by Senator Nevers (Act 245) expands the option of political
subdivisions to grant farm machinery and equipment an immediate or phased-in
exclusion from their taxes and to grant an exclusion for other machinery,
equipment, supplies, materials, or services used or consumed in the business of
farming.
Utilities
Senate Bill 331 by Senator Ellington (Act 471) provides for an exclusion
from the state sales and use tax for natural gas and electricity purchased for
use by a paper or wood products manufacturing facility. Under current law,
there is a existing exemption for electricity and natural gas which has been
suspended for 3.3 of 4 cents of state sales tax for non-residential use.
Pursuant to this legislation, natural gas and electricity purchased by a paper
or wood products manufacturing facility would be permanently exempted from the
state sales tax.
House Bill 911 by Representative Townsend (pending House Ways and Means)
provides for a state sales and use tax exclusion for propane and butane for
certain businesses. Current law provides for an exclusion for consumer
purchases of any fuel or gas for residential use. This legislation would expand
this exclusion for the sale and purchase of propane and butane by agricultural
business.
House Bill 635 by Representative Fannin (pending House Ways and Means)
provides for an exemption from the state sales and use tax for the sale at
retail, the use, the consumption, distribution, and storage of steam, water,
electric power, natural gas, and propane used or consumed for farm purposes by
the producers of agricultural commodities. The exemption would be appicable to
all taxable periods beginning on or after July 1, 2007.
FORESTRY
Several bills this session dealt with the timber severance tax. Senate Bill
24 by Senator Nevers (pending Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs) and
Senate Bill 239 by Senator Nevers (pending Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs)
provide for exempting certain timber and pulpwood from the severance tax if a
parish governing authority determines that a hurricane or other emergency
declared by the governor has caused great damage or destruction and has
materially increased the cost of severing and retrieving tree and timber.
Senate Bill 239 would be retroactive to August 28, 2005, and this is the
only substantial difference in the two pieces of legislation.
Under current law, the proceeds
from the severance tax on timber is split between the state and the parish from
which the timber was severed. The state receives 75% while the parish receives
25%. The state's portion of the proceeds from the severance tax is further
divided with 75% going into the Forest Productivity Fund and the other 25% going
into the state general fund. Senate Bill 21 by Senator Smith (vetoed by the
governor) changes the allocation of the state's portion of the severance tax
and provides that 100% of the severance tax the state receives shall be
deposited into the Forest Productivity Fund.
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