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Legislative wish list unveiled

CHARLESTON — With Christmas a week away, the West Virginia Department of Agriculture has a wish list for legislators when they return to Charleston in 2019.

The department released its 2019 legislative agenda Monday for the legislative session starting Wednesday, Jan. 9.

Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt said many of the recommendations will help his office run more efficiently and allow the agency to better safeguard the state’s food supply.

“This will be our third legislative session, and I believe the most prepared we have been to make significant policy changes,” Leonhardt said in a statement. “We know agriculture can be an economic driver for the state but some of the department’s code hasn’t been updated since the 1920s. All of our priorities seek to modernize rules and regulations or provide more tools to our agribusinesses.”

The top two priorities for the department are creation of a Capital Investment Fund and the Ag General Counsel Bill.

The fund would allow the department to set up a pool of money to do improvements to the labs at the Gus R. Douglas Agriculture Center in Guthrie. The department moved to the Guthrie facility in the 1980s. The fund would allow the labs to keep up with technology and upkeep. Leonhardt is also asking for $50 million in general fund appropriations for laboratory repair.

The Ag General Counsel Bill would allow the department to hire its own in-house legal counsel. According to Leonhardt, the Department of Agriculture is the only department in the Board of Public Works – consisting of the governor’s office, state auditor, state treasurer, secretary of state, attorney general, and superintendent of schools – to not have its own legal counsel. Having access to an attorney on staff would give the department more flexibility and guidance.

“We have done our due diligence to identify strategies to grow our agricultural industries,” Leonhardt said. “This includes the development of a strategic plan for agriculture. We hope the strategic plan and our own initiatives will put us on the right path to growing agriculture in the state.”

Other priorities for the department include: transferring regulation of grade A milk from the Department of Health and Human Resources to agriculture; updating auctioneering codes to take into account online auctions; exempting the department from surplus property purchases when using federal dollars or self-sustaining programs; an Agriculture Investment Fund to provide micro-loans for agricultural-based businesses; a Farm-to-School pilot project to help schools source more of their food from in-state farmers; and tax incentives for agricultural businesses to utilize West Virginia natural gas.

One priority that Leonhardt has pushed for with little success the last two years is moving the Division of Forestry — currently under the Department of Commerce — to the Agriculture Department. The department already works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to inspect lumber intended for export. Last year, bills introduced in the House of Delegates and state Senate never made it out of committee.

Leonhardt also wants a West Virginia version of the Farm Bill, which includes code cleanup for agritourism, equine, and farmers’ markets, as well as removal of fees for feeding garbage to swine and seed law modernization.

Outside of the typical requests of the Agriculture Department, Leonhardt is endorsing civil asset forfeiture reform. This adds the department to a diverse group — including the state chapters of Americans for Prosperity, the ACLU, and the Citizens Action Group — pushing for reforms to how and when law enforcement can seize the assets of people accused of crimes.

Mike Stuart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, is suing an industrial hemp farm in Mason County for violating the Controlled Substance Act, even though the farm is part of a program managed by the department.

“The founders of our country sought to protect the private property of citizens as the basis of our union,” Leonhardt said in a statement after joining the coalition. “U.S. Congress’s intent, as well as state laws show support for legal industrial hemp programs. The most recent actions by the U.S. Attorney is a blatant overreach by a federal bureaucrat. The lack of criminal charges filed by the office calls into the question the motivation for pursuing the lawsuit.”

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