Rep. Donna Walsh again honored for her work on behalf of RI agriculture

RI Farm Bureau honors 3 legislators

Senator Sue Sosnowski & Rep. Donna Walsh

STATE HOUSE – Three Rhode Island state legislators were honored today by the Rhode Island Farm Bureau during the organization’s 60^th annual awards event at the West Valley Inn.

Sen. Walter S. Felag Jr. (D-Dist. 10, Warren, Bristol, Tiverton) and Rep. Donna M. Walsh (D-Dist. 36, Charlestown, New Shoreham, South Kingstown, Westerly) were the recipients of a new award, the “Navigator” award, presented by the Farm Bureau. The award was created to honor state legislators and/or officials who have been instrumental in helping the organization deal with and address concerns about government regulations and procedures.

Senator Felag and Representative Walsh were the Senate and House sponsors of legislation that was incorporated into the state budget, requiring the state to assess inherited working farmland at its use value, not its higher cash value, for inheritance tax purposes.

Previously, family farms were assessed at their “full and fair” cash value, the value of the land if it were to be developed. Although an average Rhode Island family farm is about 50 acres and might be worth about $650,000 as a working farm, it could be worth around $5 million as house lots, costing the heirs about $500,000 in inheritance taxes. The result has often been that heirs of the farm were forced to sell all or part of the land to pay the tax bill.

Senator Felag and Representative Walsh said, upon enactment of the budget earlier this year, that the assessment procedure change acknowledges that farmland is a valuable asset to the state and may help prevent family farms from being driven out of business.

Also honored at the Farm Bureau event was Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski (D-Dist. 37, New Shoreham, South Kingstown), who received the 2013 “Golden Tractor” award as the person who has done the most to help Rhode Island agriculture and acknowledging her consistent legislative advocacy to help Rhode Island farms survive and thrive.

Senator Sosnowski, who is serving her ninth term in the Senate, is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment & Agriculture and also serves as a member of the Senate Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Health & Human Services.

Also receiving a 2013 “Golden Tractor” award was William Stamp, who has served as the president of the RI Farm Bureau for 40 years.

Representative Walsh, who was the 2012 recipient of the “Golden Tractor” award, is in her fourth term in the House of Representatives (she previously served three terms in the Senate). She is Vice Chair of the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, a member of the House Committee on Judiciary and the House Committee on Oversight and co-chairs the Permanent Joint Committee on Economic Development.

Senator Felag, first elected to the Senate in 1998, is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Special Legislation and Veterans’ Affairs and Second Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance.