June 3, 2009

The House Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee was scheduled to consider HB 1394 on June 2.  Eight amendments had been filed to the bill.  There were no votes on the bill and the meeting turned into a hearing where members asked questions of the PA Farm Bureau and The County Commissioner’s Association.  There is some disagreement amongst the groups as to the size of the area subject to rollback taxes and the timing of the rollback.  Representatives from the Department of Agriculture were also present.  The Department and the Farm Bureau prefer the use of the restoration report that is filed with the Department of Environmental Protection to determine the size of the area subject to rollback taxes while the County Commissioners Association would like a larger area.  In a previous hearing they cited the area applied for under the Erosion & Sediment Permit.

The second point of contention was the timing of the rollback.  The County Commissioners Association is seeking to protect Counties that have been applying the provisions of current law.  Bradford County was cited most often as a county that has moved forward with Wyoming County also being referred to.  A voting meeting has been scheduled on amendments and the bill for Tuesday, June 9^th.   Other amendments filed would require the producer to pay the rollback taxes, cover related facilities and non-surface coal mining and exempt agriculture related Tier I energy production.