Guebert: Making plans for the future

Whether it’s apples, pumpkins, corn or soybeans, harvest marks the end of a growing season and the beginning of restocking storage for future delivery.

Farmers are no different than many businesses as the planning never stops. Even before the 2020 crop has been harvested, 2021 crop inputs are purchased and the next crop is being planned.

2021 looks to be a challenging year due to market destruction from loss of export markets and biofuel waivers, combined with the pandemic supply chain disruption.

Our board of directors could not ignore these impacts as they took the summer growing season to spend extra time making plans for the future, while learning from the past six months.

Those conversations resulted in our own harvest of priority initiatives with the adoption of the 2020 Board Action Plan. The report identifies focus areas to improve farm profitability heading into the 2020 U.S. presidential election and into the 2021 growing season.

The priority initiatives in the plan include:

• Build demand for Illinois crops and products.

• Support Illinois farmers and farm families through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

• Prepare for farm policy shifts.

• Advocate for the farmer role within the food supply chain.

• Identify climate and conservation programs that benefit all Illinois farmers.

The plan aims to summarize our ongoing priority initiatives to communicate with our membership, the American Farm Bureau Federation and our other agricultural partners. The plan is available at your county Farm Bureau office or online. I encourage you to reach out to your county Farm Bureau.

Words on a page are nothing if we do not put any action into them. We look forward to keeping this plan at the top of our agenda into 2021.

We were founded on grassroots principles and that means member input is crucial. That’s why, on Nov. 3, Illinois Farm Bureau is committed to urging all of our members to vote ‘No’ on the progressive income tax question ballot.

Illinois Farm Bureau’s grassroots policy development process has long stated that we prefer a flat rate state income tax, and this past year, our members further strengthened this position by adding that the organization opposes the creation of a progressive/graduated income tax.

What’s even more concerning to our members is that the progressive tax allows the General Assembly to raise taxes on targeted income levels, thus reducing the political impact of future tax increases.

Currently, any tax increases affect all taxpayers, and therefore the General Assembly is accountable to all the voting populace. Allowing a progressive tax rate allows this voter accountability to be minimized.

Our members are also concerned that, based on the current proposed progressive income tax structure, the revenues will not generate the levels estimated and the appetite of increased spending to address our states ever-increasing pension obligations and other debts will lead the General Assembly to increase taxes on middle and lower income levels.

What does this do to you?

For farmers, the current proposed tax structure, which can and will most likely be changed by a simple majority vote of the General Assembly, may not have a huge impact, especially with the current downturn in commodity and livestock prices.

Farm incomes have been economically depressed for several years now, and COVID-19 has shown these market forces’ vulnerability on our members’ incomes.

Still, our membership is very confident that the General Assembly will expand the taxes on middle and lower-income levels incrementally, overtime increasing their burden.

With all this being said, we urge you to vote ‘No’ on Nov. 3.

The fall of 2020 looks dramatically different with no Friday night lights, but as combines roll through the Illinois farm fields this fall, the fall harvest has not been canceled — we are still farming.

Richard Guebert Jr. is the president of Illinois Farm Bureau. His family farm in Randolph County grows corn, soybeans and wheat.