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Show Utah Farm Bureau News Page 6 H.B. 79- - Farm labor brought under Legislative Report As of January 29 there are 86 bills presented to the legislature that one way or another touch directly the interests of farm and ranch people. We will not be able to discuss all of these, but will try to identify all that are of real importance. We will classify the bills into groups of related interest. 1st Group - Important Bills - Should be passed. S.B. 51 - Simplification of greenbelt filing. S.B. 34 - Enrichment of flour. Passed Senate. S.B. 112 H.B. 117 - insurance. g vehicle emblem. Passed House No-fau- lt Slow-movin- H.B. 165 - Eliminate state property tax. S.J.R. 6 - Resolution to President to relax canine toxicants. H.B. 33 - Revision of child labor . laws. Passed House. H.J.R. 2- - Resolution to Congress to revise federal child labor laws. Passed House. H.B. 144 - Amend brand law -- Renew permits every five years. H.B. 88 - Permit 25 percent overload permit. At this time all we will get is a resolution to Congress to unify standards. H.B. 93 - Public Employee Negation Act - Needs study. !iw No Number - Farm truck license. 1st Group - Important bills - Need to be killed or carefully amended. H.B. 43 - Put farm labor under workmens compensation. Killed. H.B. 44 - Pit farm labor under occupational disease. Killed. H.B. 60 - Put farm labor tran- sportation under safety inspection. Killed. H.B. 77 - Migrant labor to receive emergency relief. Killed H.B. 78 - Remove residency requirements for mirgrant labor. Killed. H.B. 80 - Eligibility for public assistance. Referred to ap- propriations. H.B. 81 - License and inspection of farm labor camps. Tabled by Labor Committee. H.B. 86 - Farm labor to be hired by contract. Killed. H.J.R. 4 - Equal rights (.Women's Lib). Killed. S.B. 113 insurance No action. policy. H.B. Ill - Enlarge big game board. Non-canc- el Killed. S.J.R. 10 - Uniform motor vehicle fee. Just introduced. All of group one bills need your help as above indicated. 2nd Group Bills rating high governing payment procedures. Passed House. H.B. 98 Death penalty for certain crimes. No action. H.B. 99 - No parole for first degree murder. No action. H.B. 101 - Change personnel of State Marketing Committee. Passed House. H.B. 115 - Enlarge Soil Conservation Committee. Passed House. H.B. 146 - Make spotlight hunting illegal. No action. H.B. 57 106 percent tax limitation not to apply under special exceptions. No action. H.B. 66 - Amendments to five-yeassessment act. No action. H.B. 73 - $3000 homestead exemption. Very questionable. No action. S.B. 15 - Sales tax exemption on food and drugs. Too much loss of revenue. No action. S.B. 29 - State income tax based on federal. No action. S.B. 39 - Sales tax ememption on vending sales 15c and less. No action. S.B. 61 - Mobile home tax. No ar action. S.B. 114 - Insurance financial responsibility. Just introduced. S.B. 32 - Subdivision control. No action. S.B. 71 - Planning and zoning. No action. February, 1973 S.B. 100 - Natural streams. No dangers in these bills. One fine woman (Mrs. Dick Burr) also action. com58 all H.B. Elect county participated and gave invaluable missioners for four years. Killed. testimony. As a result, six of these H.B. 45 - Lieutenant Governor. bills are already killed and two others are pretty well asleep. (Covered by S.J.R. 7). Killed. We may need help on some other S.B. 75 - Food sales tax credit on acNo bills, so every Farm Bureau income tax. May be good. member should be ready to do his tion. H.B. Driving under part. influence. H.B. 56 passed House. 130 H.B. veterinarians. Passed House. H.B. 147 - Increase income tax exemptions. No action. S.B. Ill - To kill dogs that chase game. No action. Latest development in the Group two bills all are of high current discussion on food price interest and' some may be shifted of a consideration into the important group as we levels involves special wage stabilization board study them. for the fowl industry patterned There is another list of bills with after the Construction Industry considerable interest, but unless Stabilization Committee which has more importance develops in them reduce wage rate increases we will not make reference to helped in die construction industry. them. Announcement that such a Farm Bureau has come in for stabilization board for the food some good action on some industry was .under consideration proposed bills in the Utah came from Treasury Secretary legislature. Nine bills covering George P. Shultz, according to were introduced in the wire service stories. farm labor House. Most of them were real bad Under the Administrations bills. The fruit and sugar beet Phase 3 economic policies, food growers were notified and inprices are still controlled at the formed when they could help. For retail level. three days a delegation of these According to Shultz, both union farmers sat through committee and management representatives meetings and testified to the have suggested the idea of a joint food industry wage board. In theory, a food board would help slow the rise in grocery prices by holding down the wages of industry workers which are a major marketing cost. While it is generally recognized that controls merely attack the symptoms of inflation-risi- ng prices-t- he proposal to check wage increases in the food industry appears to have some merit. U.S. Department of Agriculture figures show that average hourly earnings of food marketing emOut-of-sta- te Food Prices And Inflation ployees have increased 147.8 percent in the past 20 years as compared to an increase of 129.1 percent for industrial workers. Labor costs are the largest of all costs incurred by firms processing and distributing farm food products, accounting for close to half of the marketing bill in recent years. Direct labor costs will probably amount to $37.4 billion in 1972, 8.4 percent more than in 1971. This total relates only to workers in establishments engaged in marketing U.S. farm foods. It does not include costs of labor engaged e in transportation or in manufacturing and distributing supplies used by marketing firms. The largest labor cost in food marketing is incurred by food processors, followed by food retailers and eating places. In 1971, civilian consumers spent $111.1 billion on food originating on U.S. farms or 4.9 percent more than in 1970. The increase in expenditures in that year consisted of an increase of $1 billion in farm value and a $4.2 billion increase in the marketing for-hir- bill. "Look! That's our money they're spending.'' History strongly supports the thesis that public ' expenditures will always increase sufficiently to every increase in public revenues. In short, government will spend all the money the taxthen some. So, its obvious payers cough up-a- nd that far more rigorous devices are required if the rate of expenditure growth is to be moderated. Scheduled, periodic reduction in income tax rates over the years may prove to be the only effective way to control the uptrend in government spending. Anyone who thinks the situation isnt serious pre-em- pt should consider this it has been predicted that the Federal budget by fiscal 1976 would rise to between $312 billion and $325.7 billion. Less than 60 days after Congress convened for the recent session, bills which would cost taxpayers more than $130 billion were introduced. If the costs were added to the present budget, it would mean additional spending of nearly 60 per cent. So, taxpayers, look sharp. Yes, look into that famous edifice in Washington and see what is going on there. It is your money that is being spent so fast. It would seem from these statistics that anything done to stabilize wage rates in the food industry would be helpful, but consumers are hot likely to see any appreciable decline in food prices until inflation is brought under control. And to achieve this goal it is necessary to attack the root cause of inflation-excessi- ve government spending. |