2025-03-25 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Revenue

REP MADARO - COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR - Welcome. This is the joint committee on revenue here for our first hearing. My name is Adrian C. Madaro, and I'm the house chair of the committee joined today by my senate cochair, Senator10 Jamie Eldridge. Very excited to work with you on this committee, Senator.14 I'm also joined today by members of the committee from the house. We have committee vice chair, Representative Linsky and then Representatives Palmino, Gomez, Phillips, Plough, and Wells. Thank you all so much for being here today. I will now turn it over to chair Eldridge to say some, remarks and introduce the senate numbers.
SEN ELDRIDGE - CO-CHAIR - Great. Thank you, Chair Madaro. I'm very excited and proud to serve with you as, co chairs of the joint committee of new. Very pleased that this is the first, I believe, hearing of any joint committee, for the legislative session. And, for the senators that are on this committee, pleased to join pleased that, Senator John Keenan from Quincy has joined us. So thank you, Senator Keenan, and looking forward to hearing testimony. Thank you.
MADARO - Thank you, Chair Eldridge. Today, we'll hear testimony on four bills concerning proposed amendments to the Massachusetts constitution. Proposals for amendments to the constitution are required to be reported on by 04/30/2025. As you may know, there are multiple ways to amend the constitution. One way is through initiative petition requiring a certain amount of signatures from Massachusetts voters in the attorney general's approval. Then over two successive legislative sessions, the constitutional amendment proposal must receive more than 25% total approval of members of the Massachusetts General Court during a joint session of the two branches. Once the 25% threshold is reached, further signatures are no longer required. Under article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution, proposals to change the constitution can also occur by legislative amendments during a joint session. A proposal must be approved by a majority, 50% plus 1, of the Massachusetts House and Senate over two successive legislative sessions.
If the proposed amendment is successfully121 passed by the legislature, then it can be placed on the ballot to be ratified by a first step is today's public hearing process. So I thank you all for being here virtually and in person to share your thoughts on the legislation before us today. We look forward to hearing from all of you. Before we begin testimony, a quick review of the process. Please be aware that this hearing is being recorded and streamed live. An archived copy will be made available on the legislature's website. Today, we'll be hearing oral testimony on bills related to the proposed amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution. Due to the hybrid nature of this hearing those, wishing to provide remote testimony were required to sign up in advance. If you were not able to testify today, you may submit written testimony to the committee until 5 PM on Wednesday, April 23 via email, jointcommittee.revenue@malegislature.gov, or physically mailed to the house chair.178
All written testimony received by the committee will be made publicly available at the discretion of the chairs, and per committee rules, limitations, and redactions shall exist for sharing testimony that includes sensitive personal information or information that may jeopardize the health, wellness, or safety of the testifier or others. Any person submitting written testimony may request such testimony remain private, and said testimony will not be made publicly available. When we conduct hearings, all members of the committee are expected to participate in person. Only the public and legislators who are not members of the committee may participate remotely. Please keep in mind that it is our policy to call elected officials out of turn. All other speakers will be called to testify in the order of the bills being heard. Speakers are asked to please limit your testimony to no more than three minutes. Staff will keep time with the timer and in the meeting chat.
You will hear a timer go off after three minutes. So once you hear that alarm, please wrap up your testimony. I wanna emphasize again that testimony should be kept to three minutes max. If you have longer241 thoughts to share, you're always welcome to submit243 written testimony to the committee. And, again, staff will be keeping a timer that will,247 sound an alarm after three minutes. After each speaker, committee members will be given the chance to ask questions. I wanna thank LIS and the assistant sergeant at arms for facilitating this hybrid hearing, as well as committee staff for their diligent work. And finally, I wanna thank all those testifying today for your time and perspective on these critical issues. First up, I believe joining us remotely is Senator Commerford, who's, here to share her testimony.
SEN COMERFORD - SB 11 - HB 71 - R - Thank you so much. Chair Madaro, Chair Eldridge, honorable members of the Revenue Committee. Thanks for hearing my testimony today remotely, and thank you for hearing this bill so early in the legislative session. I'm testifying in support of S 11 and H 71. H 71 is filed by, the representative, the wonderful Representatives Blais and Kane. These are constitutional amendments relative to agricultural and horticultural lands. Protecting and valuing agricultural land is so important that it's written in our state's constitution. Article 99 of our constitution gives the legislature the power to tax ag land based on the value of the land for agricultural or horticultural purposes rather than commercial or residential land tax rates. The constitution protects agricultural land recognizing the benefits that agriculture brings to our local food system, economic development, and providing Massachusetts residents with nutritious local food. The constitution also recognizes that once farmland is lost347 to development, it doesn't return to farmland.
This is quite relevant right now, unfortunately. In the last 5-year agricultural census, we found that Massachusetts lost 27,000 acres of farmland, and I'm sure the chairs and committee agree, we cannot afford to lose more. But this is the problem. Our article370 99 has an archaic limitation. Only farms of374 5 acres or more are eligible for this tax treatment. This means that farmers often pay much higher commercial rates for farmland. This is now causing article 99 to have the opposite effective protecting farmland, and instead it's contributing to farmland loss ironically because of the high tax bills and the brutal downward economic pressure facing farms, which on average make only about 94 or 95¢ for every dollar they spend. And I'm sure the chairs agree this is an unworkable economic proposition. Urban farmers can't find parcels of land larger than 5 acres. New farmers, can't afford to purchase a large farm parcel, and even long-standing farms like Barstow's Longview Farm and Hadley are impeded. On Sunday, I visited with the Barstow family who had been farming this land since 18 o 6, and what they've told me is that in order to, deal with high feed prices for their dairy cows, they are forced, to actually expand their acreage of growing hay.440
And on the 2 acres that they442 have to farm outside of their hundreds of acres of farmland, they pay more for those 2 acres than they do on all of the other acreage combined. So, and as you can understand, this is very difficult for a dairy farm, and we've seen such loss of dairy farms in the Commonwealth. So these bills eliminate the463 acreage requirement. So465 the 5 acre requirement in article 99 in the constitution, ensuring469 that state is really just simply taxing farmland as farmland. It was needed before now, but amid significant federal477 cuts to farms for their local food to school programs and their energy resilience efforts. This bill is absolutely critical,485 and we must allow farmland487 to simply be taxed as farmland regardless of the acreage. So, I am very grateful again to the revenue committee for advancing the bill last session. Thank you so much for hearing it early this session, and I respectfully urge a favorable report, and I'm grateful for this partnership with Representatives Kane and Representative Blais. Thank you so much, chairs.
MADARO - Senator, thank you for joining for the purposes of sharing your testimony. Do we have any, questions from committee members? Senator? Great.
ELDRIGE - Thank you, Mr Chairman. Thank you so much, Senator Comerford, and you've been a long-time champion for farms, both in your district and across the state. I just wanted to ask in addition to your testimony, I believe that you are co-chairing the 21st century farm commission. And I'm just wondering if you could534 I think with, speaker Pro Tem Pro Tem Hogan, if you could tell us the status and timeline for when that commission report will be done.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much, Senator Eldridge, for that question. We are hoping, to have a report out by this spring, and this issue was raised as part of the testimony we heard. The commission is not necessarily focusing on the constitutional amendment, but the economic pressures and the complexity facing farmers and the complexity facing farmers and farmland actually caused the legislature to gavel in this commission to569 stand it up. And thank you to the speaker pro571 tem for leading. And it's573 all about how we as a Commonwealth protect farmers, which are, as you know, facing critical, critical economic hurdles, now and certainly into the future.
ELDRIGE - Thank you very much.
COMERFORD - So hopefully this spring. That's what we're going for, Senator.

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REP PAULINO - I know about supporting farmers, but but what I worry is, do we have any type of idea how we're gonna regulate? Like, do we have a process of certifying if a property owner can go and certify that what he will be doing really is farming, or he's just not pretending to own a farm in order to say, okay. I own a farm just to pay less property taxes. So are we including some type of certification? Like, he go to the Farmers Bureau or something like that. Because, like, we wanna help farmers, but we also wanna make sure municipalities can collect revenue have the revenue they need to go through business. So can you do you have any information how we're gonna go through, how we're gonna fiscalize this? If this pass, how we're gonna make sure we we don't pass this law and then it's abused?
COMERFORD - Thank you so much for that important, Janae.

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COMERFORD - Department of Agriculture Resources for weighing in on this. We have to do such verifications, for other protect land protection. You know, so APR land, for example. And so we are able to, have processes in the state that will allow us to say that the farmland that's being used as farmland, is such and not something else. And the legislature has been good and diligent on these questions, and I appreciate yours. Thanks.
MADARO - Thank you. Any other questions from committee members? Okay. Seeing none, Senator, thank you for your time.

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REBECCA MILLER - MASS FOOD SYSTEM COLLABORATIVE - SB 11 - HB 71 - Well good afternoon, Chair Madaro, Chair Eldridge, members of the committee. It's great to be with you. Thank you for, scheduling this so promptly. I think this is my first official hearing that I'm testifying at this session. I'm really excited to be here, especially, of course, after Senator Jo Comerford, who I pretty much just always end up saying, like, big plus one to after I testify. I'm representing the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative where I'm the policy director. We support collective action towards a sustainable, resilient, equitable local food system through advocacy campaigns and networks support communities of practice, of farmers food system stakeholders. Farming assistance organizations. And so we're in support of Senate Bill 11 and804 house 71, as you know, sponsored by Senator Comerford and reps Blaine Kane. As Senator Comerford mentioned, this is both a rural issue, a suburban issue, and an urban issue. There is a farm, for example, in Suffolk County that is not structured as a nonprofit, structured as a commercial business that is subject to the commercial tax rate, not the ag tax rate.
There are also parcels of land, like in Center Commafoods District that are taxed at higher rates on that specific830 piece of land than on the rest of the farm itself as, you know, we834 have high we have a housing crisis. The development of land has, gone unevenly, and that has resulted in farmland becoming fragmented across the states. We have farmers farming on pieces of land that are smaller than 5 acres. This amendment is one of the ways that we can provide real relief to farmers. We want to see the next generation of farmers really step up and take on leadership. Right? The average age of a farmer in Massachusetts is 59. You know, it's not gonna get any younger in the next 5 years while this bill makes862 its way through the constitutional process. And I think it's just really important that we recognize the cost of farmland, as most recently mentioned by USDA. It was about $14,000 an acre for fair market value. So this is, again, one of the ways that we can provide real relief to farmers and ensure that their businesses are financially sustainable, not making 95¢ for every $1 they invest, which, like, I don't know about you all, but, like, I wouldn't start a business with that proposition. Right?
And that's really tough. I also just wanna mention that farmers, farmland protection organizations, and other stakeholders vocalize the need for this constitutional change during the development of the state's first farmland action plan, which was released back in 2023. It's already almost two years ago now. And this constitutional change is included in the plan as recommendation 1b 2a. It's online. I'm happy to share that in my testimony as well. I think we know that changes to every industry are coming with climate change happening with, the state's strong goals for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, our significant need for affordable housing, all affecting farming, and those will probably continue to927 happen and continue to move quickly.
Right? So the need for local agriculture is going to still be essential, and we need to adopt this constitutional change so that we can continue to support new beginning farmers of color, farmers that are farming on smaller parcels of land, and respectfully, we ask for your support as this moves through the process and for a favorable report. And to Representative Paulino's question earlier, the, chapter 61a is the program that farmers enroll into receive that reduced tax rate, and that's actually, at the municipal level that farmers go through and certify every year. So there is a process to certify that. So I just wanted to preemptively answer your question, which I understand, like, you know, there's we don't wanna give this tax break to the folks that aren't actively farming. That's why, the bill says that, you know, farmland should be in production for two years before receiving this rate. So I think that's my time.

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MADARO - Thank you for your time. And at perfect timing, we will now hear up the last person who is, signed to testify today, Representative Natalie Blais, who is here to also testify on H 71. Welcome, representative.
REP BLAIS - H 71 - Just made it in. Appreciate you both taking my testimony, in support of H 71, which I have offered with representative Hannah Kane and Senator Joe Commerford. I know you've just heard from Senator Comerford all the way from Worcester. So it's wonderful to be here with you today. This is a legislative amendment to the constitution relative to agricultural and horticultural lands. And coming in from Western Massachusetts, I can tell you that this is needed. This is necessary. There's never been a more important time for us to advance this piece of legislation. I do not take amending the constitution of Massachusetts lightly. I would not have proposed this piece of legislation with Rep Kane and Senator Comerford if I did not believe it was necessary. And quite frankly, there's never been a more important time for us to take this step as our local food system is really in crisis. What we know is that according to the American Farmland Trust, Massachusetts is third in the country, for representative farmland projected to be lost by 2040. Third in the country.
We know that Massachusetts has the second highest farmland value in the country, and the third highest home values in the nation. This puts farmland out of reach for a number of farmers, and that 5-acre restriction really limits the ability of new farmers to come into this field. Massachusetts also has an age demographic where 75% of farmers are 65 or older. And finally, of course, as we saw in 2023, we know that farmers are facing the real threat of climate change on a day-to-day basis. The uncertainty that they are facing daily is nothing compared to the uncertainty that they are facing in terms of cuts1122 and freezes that we are seeing1124 from the federal government right now. So1126 if there was ever a time for Massachusetts to step up and say that we1132 believe in our farmers, we believe in the local food system, that we have fought to strengthen and build over the last decade or more. This is really the time to do it. It's especially important to note, as I'm sure Senator Comerford pointed out, that our farmers make 95¢ on the dollar. 95 cents on the dollar. Despite that, they are working every single day to provide local, fresh, healthy food to sustain us.
And when they have too much, they're donating to our local food pantries, to our local food banks. They are there for us. They were there for us during COVID when our local food systems shut well, when the food system in New England shut down. Our local farmers were there for us. There's only so much that we can do for them, and this is one very concrete step that1187 we can take in the Commonwealth. It is1189 important to note that 30% of the farms in the Commonwealth are under nine acres. So this would make a significant difference in helping to support our local food systems at this critical time. Believe it or not, this provision is older than I am. I like to think that we can change with the times. And as I said, there's never been a more important time for us to stand up for what Massachusetts believes in, to stand up for our farmers, and to support our local food systems. I respectfully ask that you report this bill out favorably, and really appreciate your support. Happy to answer any questions that you have, and thanks for the timing so I could just roll right in out of breath to present this testimony to you.
MADARO - Representative, thank you for making it to testify in person, and thank you for being such a long standing champion for farmers across the continent.
BLAIS - Well, thank you as well, Mr.

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MADARO - Is anyone here to testify that did not have a chance to sign up? Okay. On that case, thank you all for being here. Do we have a motion to adjourn?
1262 REP1262 LINSKY1262 -1262 So1262 motion to adjourn.
MADARO - Alright. So moved. Thank you.