Jack Smiles column

Friday, February 10, 2012

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Farms go up in smoke

Sunday May 02, 2010 | 01:00 AM

Jack Smiles jsmiles@psdispatch.com

Attention all smokers! Looking for another reason to quit? Follow along. Last month a farm in Hollenback Township entered the Luzerne County Farmland Preservation Program. The owners of the 131-acre farm got $2,262 per acre or $373,000 of your money to give up development rights to their farm.

That’s right, smokers, it was your money. The program is funded by a two-cent per pack tax on cigarettes.

According to one of the owners of the farm they didn’t do it for the money. Oh no, “The real reason was because my father always asked not to subdivide and develop the farm,” he said. “We agreed with him and wanted to keep it a farm.”

Really? It wasn’t about the money it was about Dad’s wishes. Sweet deal, huh? They get to stay on their farm with $373,000 of smokers’ money and honor Dad’s wishes at the same time. Well, maybe I’m stupid but why would someone who owned a farm which he or she didn’t want develop just, oh I don’t know, how about – not develop it?

According to the rules of the program the money paid by the state and county to entice farm owners to give up development rights has to be less than what the land would be worth to a developer.

Take a drag on your Marlboro and think about that. Sounds as though Dad’s wishes might have had a price one day in the future if it weren’t for the easement.

And the farm owner said not only is he making Dad happy he’s making Hollenback Township happy because “Development is a burden for townships because the infrastructure costs them money as opposed to keeping the land in farms,” he said.

Hollenback Township is 14.7 square miles with a 1,120 population. That’s 76 people per square mile. It is very rural and the people who live there want to keep it that way and who can blame them?

But it’s not correct to say developing a farm there into, say condos, would be a financial burden on the township. In fact the township would make money taxing a condo development. So would the Berwick school district.

Twenty-two farms have been preserved in Luzerne County under the program. The Johnson farm is the first to be preserved in Hollenback Township. There are three others in the township on the waiting list. Those farmers on the waiting list better hope you all don’t quit smoking. And wouldn’t it be cool if one of the farms that got preserved was a tobacco farm?

Oh, and how about this? The Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber had a Legislative Breakfast the other day. Local lawmakers talked about the state budget. Phyllis Mundy said, “We tax cigarettes until the cows come home, but we don’t have the guts to tax cigars or smokeless tobacco. This state needs to find new sources of revenue.”

Until the cows come home.

Get it? Cows? Farms?

She wasn’t referring to farm preservation when she said that, but the timing for me was really funny. Well, anyway, why does it take guts to tax cigars?

What takes guts if you ask me is for the state to spend $29 billion, that’s billion with a “b” and then say, “This state needs to find new sources of revenue.”

No it doesn’t.

It needs to cut spending.

They can start with the $20 million for farm preservation.

A two-cent tax on cigarette sales in PA raises about $20 million a year based on sales of one billion packs a year.