Important Agricultural Lands
What will the Department of Agriculture do to Assist in the Implementation of the Act?
The DOA is directly or indirectly involved in the entire Act. Our primary responsibility is in the development of incentives.
The DOA, with the assistance of the Department of Taxation, shall contract meeting facilitation and cost-benefit analysis services to develop and recommend a package of proposals for agricultural incentives. The meeting facilitators shall ensure that stakeholder discussions are inclusive and use a consistent voting procedure.
The DOA shall report stakeholder findings and recommendations, including proposed legislation and recommended minimum criteria for determining when the "enactment of legislation establishing incentives and protection" has occurred no later than twenty days before the convening of the regular session of 2007. The report shall include an analysis of the impacts and benefits of its recommendations, a record of the stakeholder group's process and deliberations, and shall provide the supporting rationale for the incentives being proposed.
Within one year of the adoption of maps of important agricultural lands by the LUC, all state agencies shall report to the Department of Agriculture on the impact of projects and programs on the designated important agricultural lands and sustained agricultural use of these lands.
$75,000 has been appropriated for disbursement by the DOA for fiscal year 2005-2006 for the development of proposals for incentives. Funds shall not lapse until June 30, 2007.
