Add S325-b, Ag & Mkts L; add S220-b, County L; amd S1405, Ins L; amd S1503, Tax L
Establishes, in the department of agriculture and markets, a matching enterprise grants for agriculture program to provide moneys to new farmers; provides a tax incentive to domestic life insurance companies to invest up to 1% of admitted assets in the purchase of agricultural land to be kept in agricultural production, which land is subject to a conservation easement and receives or is eligible to receive an agricultural assessment.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4091
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 26, 2015
___________
Introduced by Sens. VALESKY, AVELLA, CARLUCCI, KLEIN, SAVINO -- read
twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the
Committee on Agriculture
AN ACT to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to estab-
lishing the matching enterprise grants for agriculture program; and to
amend the county law, the insurance law and the tax law, in relation
to providing an incentive to domestic life insurance companies to
invest in the purchase of agricultural land to be kept in agricultural
production
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The agriculture and markets law is amended by adding a new
2 section 325-b to read as follows:
3 § 325-b. Matching enterprise grants for agriculture. 1. There shall be
4 established in the department a matching enterprise grants for agricul-
5 ture program, under which matching grants shall be made available to
6 eligible farmers for the purchase of equipment, structures, livestock
7 and other personal property to be used for the agricultural production
8 activities conducted by such farmer.
9 2. For the purposes of this section, an "eligible farmer" shall be a
10 person who owns or has a long term lease for, for a period of not less
11 than five years, a parcel of not less than five acres of land within the
12 state, used in agricultural production, and such person shall have
13 engaged in farming and agricultural production on at least a half-time
14 basis upon such parcel of land for not less than one year, nor more than
15 five years.
16 3. Grants shall be made available to eligible farmers upon application
17 to the department based upon such requirements and priorities as the
18 department shall establish for the awarding of grants pursuant to this
19 section. The department shall require that applicants for grants provide
20 matching funds, which are held by the eligible farmer, and not include
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09173-02-5
S. 4091 2
1 funds from any other grant or award. No grant awarded to an individual
2 eligible farmer pursuant to this section shall exceed ten thousand
3 dollars.
4 4. The department shall promulgate such rules and regulations as shall
5 be necessary to implement the provisions of this section.
6 § 2. The county law is amended by adding a new section 220-b to read
7 as follows:
8 § 220-b. Conservation easements in connection with certain land used
9 in agricultural production. 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of
10 subdivision (b) of section two of this chapter, the board of supervisors
11 or county legislature of every county shall, upon application for a
12 conservation easement filed with such county, for property within such
13 county, not more than six months prior to the close of the taxable year
14 or the year next succeeding such year, for which a deduction is or will
15 be sought to be claimed by a taxpayer pursuant to paragraph seventeen of
16 subdivision (b) of section fifteen hundred three of the tax law, accept
17 such application and offer to permit a not-for-profit conservation
18 organization or public body within such county, within whose territory
19 the subject property is located, other than the state, to accept or
20 undertake to accept a conservation easement in connection with the
21 administration of paragraph seventeen of subdivision (b) of section
22 fifteen hundred three of the tax law, pertaining to agricultural
23 products produced or processed on land in agricultural production and
24 receiving or eligible to receive an agricultural assessment.
25 2. In the event that an application for a conservation easement is
26 submitted to a county less than six months prior to the close of such
27 taxpayer's taxable year, the six-month period provided for in subdivi-
28 sion one of this section for the county to secure a not-for-profit
29 conservation organization or public body within such county, within
30 whose territory the subject property is located, other than the state,
31 to take and accept such conservation easement or for the county itself
32 to do so, shall apply and run from the date of the filing of such appli-
33 cation, and the conservation easement, if taken and accepted within such
34 latter six-month period, shall be deemed to meet the requirement for tax
35 deductibility pursuant to said provisions of section fifteen hundred
36 three of the tax law with respect to the timeliness of the application
37 for and taking and accepting of such conservation easement.
38 3. For the purposes of this section, the term "conservation easement"
39 has the meaning thereof within the contemplation of title three of arti-
40 cle forty-nine of the environmental conservation law.
41 § 3. Paragraph 3 of subsection (a) of section 1405 of the insurance
42 law is amended to read as follows:
43 (3) Obligations secured by real property or interests therein. (A)
44 Obligations, or participations therein, secured by liens on real proper-
45 ty or interests therein located within the United States and not eligi-
46 ble under paragraph one or two of this subsection, provided that no
47 insurer making investments under the authority of this section shall
48 invest in or loan upon the security of any one property, under the
49 authority of this paragraph, more than thirty thousand dollars or two
50 percent of admitted assets, whichever is the greater.
51 (B) Notwithstanding any provision of subparagraph (A) of this para-
52 graph to the contrary, a domestic life insurer may invest up to one
53 percent of its admitted assets in obligations subject to the provisions
54 of paragraph seventeen of subdivision (b) of section fifteen hundred
55 three of the tax law.
S. 4091 3
1 § 4. Subdivision (b) of section 1503 of the tax law is amended by
2 adding a new paragraph 17 to read as follows:
3 (17) Entire net income shall not include:
4 (A) thirty percent of interest received by a taxpayer as payment to
5 the taxpayer on account of indebtedness incurred to the taxpayer for the
6 purchase of, and by a person who has purchased:
7 (i) for not more than fifty acres of one or more contiguous parcels of
8 land, which land is used in agricultural production or has been in agri-
9 cultural production within the past five years in the taxpayer's taxable
10 year of the incurrence of such indebtedness or the year next succeeding
11 such year. In the event such interest paid is for more than fifty acres
12 of land, the provisions of this paragraph shall apply only to that ratio
13 of the interest paid which is equal to the ratio between fifty acres and
14 the total area of land upon which the interest is paid;
15 (ii) which land has or is eligible to have an agricultural assessment
16 in the taxpayer's taxable year of the incurrence of such indebtedness or
17 the year next succeeding such year;
18 (iii) which land is used or has been used in the past five years for
19 the cultivation of agricultural products in the taxpayer's taxable year
20 of the incurrence of such indebtedness or the year next succeeding such
21 year; and
22 (iv) which land is subject to a conservation easement that limits the
23 use of such land to agricultural production, which conservation easement
24 is in compliance with title three of article forty-nine of the environ-
25 mental conservation law and section two hundred twenty-b of the county
26 law in the taxpayer's taxable year of the incurrence of such indebt-
27 edness or the year next succeeding such year.
28 (B) for the purposes of this paragraph, the following terms have the
29 following meanings:
30 (i) "agricultural assessment" has the meaning that it has for the
31 purposes of article twenty-five-AA of the agriculture and markets law.
32 (ii) "agricultural products" have the meanings defined therefor by the
33 commissioner of agriculture and markets in regulations promulgated for
34 the purposes of this paragraph.
35 (iii) "land used in agricultural production" has the meaning defined
36 therefor in article twenty-five-AA of the agriculture and markets law.
37 § 5. This act shall take effect immediately, and sections two, three
38 and four of this act shall apply to taxable years beginning on or after
39 January first of the year in which this act shall have become a law;
40 provided that any and all rules and regulations and any other measures
41 necessary to implement any provision of this act shall be promulgated
42 and taken, respectively, immediately and, if deemed necessary, on an
43 emergency basis.
