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Senator
Robert C. Jubelirer's Floor
Remarks on ACRE
For
those of us who represent rural areas where agriculture is
still an economic strength, this is a vital piece of
legislation.
Some
parts of my district have proved particularly susceptible to
the outbreak of restrictive local ordinances. To survive,
farmers must fight back through the legal system, and as
local experience shows, they then confront a tough
combination of national resources and taxpayer money used to
bleed them dry. In this process, farming does not win, no
matter the ultimate verdict.
At the
heart of the local ordinance movement is the notion that
there is the right to reject anything, anywhere, for any
reason, at any time. That is a right that exists only in
the imagination of the minds behind what is really an
anti-agriculture push. Agriculture, whether it is a small
family farm or a much larger enterprise, is not helped when
it is smothered under a load of arbitrary regulations.
Local
governments should and do possess powers for setting limits
and establishing standards for various kinds of
development. But to attempt to dictate who may or may not
own various enterprises, or to dictate what sorts of
contractual relationships may exist, is a level of
interference that knows no end and has no healthy outcome.
I do not
discredit the nostalgia people feel for main streets and
wide-open countryside, for the small family farm, the corner
drugstore, and the main square 5&10. But we cannot turn
back the economic clock and recapture an era gone by merely
by having government rewriting economic rules in arbitrary
and crazy-quilt fashion.
I do not
discount the difficulties facing local officials caught in
the clashes pitting homeowners against modern agricultural
practices. But it is wrong when groups contend that there
is no control, no limit, no protection unless we let local
officials write any restriction they want to. There are
many important protections contained in state law and state
regulation that we have approved over the years.
We have
tried several ways to solve this problem through
legislation, including a bill that the Governor vetoed.
This measure provides a promising alternative, simple and
effective, for ending the growing, counterproductive
conflict between farmers and local officials. Our
agricultural experts in the Senate and the House have done a
superb job in crafting this approach.
Everyone
praises the importance of agriculture to our economy and to
the character of our Commonwealth. This bill will ensure
that our policies and our actions are as supportive as our
words.
Sen. Waugh News Release
Sen. Madigan's Remarks
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