[Anchor intro: Some New York farmers say they are getting short-changed by state government. Democracywise reporter Robert Lowrey tells us about one farm program that has lost most of its funding, leaving 64 farms in New York asking where their money is.]
To help protect family farms, the state of New York created a special program. It gives money to farmers who keep their land instead of selling it for commercial purposes. The process of getting into the program takes a couple of years and thousands of dollars for application fees from the farmers. So far, 64 New York farmers have not gotten the money they were promised by the state. And 16 of those are in Central New York.
Doug Blumer is one of the Central New York farmers who went through the process in 2008. He has a 1,000-acre farm in Elbridge. He has invested about $65,000 in getting into the star program. He was expecting to get nearly $2 million this year from the state to improve his farm.
“I have a house I’ve been trying to rebuild for two years.”
(Doug Blumer, farmer)
The reason Blumer has not received any money is because the state is facing a $1-billion budget deficit next year. Syracuse University economist Don Dutkowsky says the state has to cut and nothing in the budget will be sacred.
“Basically, they’re looking for funds to cut somewhere, anywhere to get this budget into balance.”
(Don Dutkowsky, economic professor at Syracuse University)
But Blumer of Elbridge is getting some help. On his side is the New York Agricultural Land Trust. The group works as the middle-man who can bridge the gap between farmer and state.
“The Land Trust work is to able to work with land owners and liaise with them between what they’re good at and what the programs can offer.”
(Tom Larson, executive director of the Land Trust)
In the mean time, Blumer continues to dream of what he will do with the money.
“We’d like to build a modern dairy facility where we can produce milk more efficiently.”
(Doug Blumer, farmer)
Reporting for Democracywise, this is Robert Lowrey.
(Robert Lowrey is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
-30-
