Lewis legislators oppose farm bill

LOWVILLE — Lewis County legislators have come out in opposition to a controversial farm labor bill and a few new or proposed state revenue-generating measures.

County lawmakers on Tuesday voted 10-0 to oppose the proposed state Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, which would require farmers to pay overtime wages and unemployment insurance for their workers.

"They're just going to put a lot of them out of business," said Legislature Chairman Jack T. Bush, R-Brantingham.

The bill, which is being debated in the state Senate Agriculture Committee, includes a requirement that farmworkers be paid time and a half for hours above 10 per day or 60 per week. That threshold would drop to 55 hours a week in 2013.

The proposed law would cause "fundamental changes to New York agriculture, forcing local farms to operate more like factories in order to absorb the added costs of this bill," the resolution passed by Lewis County legislators says.

It adds that no other state has enacted such comprehensive labor mandates for farmworkers and that provisions like the 60-hour workweek would "put agricultural and dairy farming out of competition in the industry, because such a large part of the industry is based on seasonal employment."

County legislators on Tuesday also unanimously voted to oppose:

■ The new 4.7 percent state tax on gross revenues for industrial development agencies. The resolution calls it an "onerous tax on the primary economic development organizations of New York's counties and other local government" and notes that the tax bills were sent out long after IDAs had developed their budgets.

■ Nearly $1 billion in proposed state taxes and funding cuts to hospitals, nursing homes and home care agencies. "These taxes and cuts, combined with almost $4 billion in reductions to health care providers in the last two years, will cripple New York's health care system, jeopardizing life-saving care for millions of vulnerable New Yorkers, especially the elderly, disabled and children," the resolution states.

■ The proposed redirection of $1 million from the approximately $5 million state snowmobile trail development and maintenance fund into the general fund. "The state's attempt to raid this money for other purposes could threaten the safety of the trail system and certainly the long-term viability of the trail fund," that resolution states.