The deadly stress of farming

It is widely-known that military veterans have among the highest suicide rates in our country. Sadly, in any given year, 38 of every 100,000 veterans take their lives.  

We know too well why they end it all – they saw things overseas that none of us could ever imagine, they battled post-traumatic stress disorder, and they could have had disabilities ranging from traumatic brain injury to dismemberment.  

Many reading this column will be surprised to learn that there is segment of our population that has a suicide rate rivaling that of our struggling veterans – farmers.

Those who put food on our tables are taking their lives in unprecedented numbers. Just a few years ago their rate of suicide was 85 per every 100,000 farmers -- 2.2 times the occurrence among veterans and 5 times that of the general population. Although last year’s numbers aren’t available, it’s well known in ag circles that that number is growing.

Even though this is a rural social crisis of epic proportions it has received little attention in the public eye and, therefore, a similar amount of concern from the masses.

  

That said, it’s probably mind blowing to most Americans because they have a vision of the farming life that is made of serene, pastoral landscapes, health country living, strong men and even stronger families.

They know little of the incredible stresses put upon farmers.

First, there’s the weather. They have to hope that Mother Nature accommodates their needs and business cycles and ensures a timely planting and a productive harvest. But, in many years, she’s not very helpful. Western New York farms were hit hard by drought in 2016 when unirrigated, rain-fed fields and orchards had crop losses between 30 and 90 percent. They prayed hard for rains after that, and the skies responded in 2017 with too much, which delayed plantings and harvests while damaging crops.

Then there’s animal disease. Back in 2015, deadly strains of bird flu killed off unbelievable numbers of chickens and turkeys throughout the central US. Even if it didn’t, the poultry farmers had to cull their flocks to prevent the spread of disease. Halfway through that year, 50 million birds had died and the losses to farmers and producers exceeded $3.3 billion.

Farmers are also besieged by the economy. Dairy prices have plummeted over the past few years. In 2014, dairymen were getting $24 per hundredweight for their milk. Now, that number sits around $13. Farmers are producing and shipping milk because they have to, yet are losing money every single day for doing it. In Wisconsin alone, 500 dairy farms closed their doors last year. Here in New York, last year’s net farm income was a third of what it was in 2014.

Then, there’s the opioid crisis. The stereotype is that it’s hitting the cities and suburbs the hardest, but three-quarters of farmers say it is impacting them or their workers. It’s easy to see why – farming is physically demanding work, from heaving hay bales to lifting feed bags to picking vegetables to bending down to milk cows. Back injuries and other aches are common. To work through it, they were prescribed pain killers, which in turn became an addiction.

There you have just 4 factors of many that make it seem like there’s no hope for farmers. Too often, the odds are stacked against them and there are so many things beyond their control. Seeing the very real chance of losing the farms and homes they love so much -- the places that receive their attention, blood, sweat, and tears 24/7/365 -- they see suicide as the only way out. It’s sad.  

There is help available for those living those dark days. NY FarmNet is a free and confidential consulting service available to any farm located in New York State to discuss financial and health issues. They have a 24/7 hotline at 1.800.547.FARM. Crisis Services of Erie County has a 24-hour hotline (716.834.3131) to serve anyone contemplating taking their life. The YWCA of Genesee County has one, too, at 585.344.4400 and so does Niagara County’s Department of Mental Health at 716.285.3515.

I also encourage those reading this paper who are not farmers or counselors to lend a hand. Outreach can be done in any number of ways from checking up on your neighbors to supporting local farm stands to buying only local or American-grown produce, meats and dairy products at the grocery store to writing elected officials about foreign trade and frustrating price controls on milk and foods.

As Paul Harvey once said: “And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.”

It’s time that we, as good citizens, acted as caretakers for them. These are some dark days in agriculture. Farmers need help. They need to know that they can ask for it and we need to know we should give it to them.   

From the 12 February 2018 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

Cuomo’s windfall tax will sicken the insured

There are 19.75 million people in New York.

Of them, 6.4 million receive Medicaid. 3.3 million are on Medicare. 700,000 are enrolled in the Essential plan for lower-income individuals who are not Medicaid eligible. There are 375,000 kids getting Child Health Plus. Then, there are likely 4.5 million people who receive government-funded insurance as a matter of public employment (1.5 million public workers with a general assumption of 2 family members added to their coverage).

So, 15.275 million people in the Empire State receive some form of government health insurance paid-for or subsidized either partially or, in most cases, in-full.  

That means that only 23 percent of New Yorkers – or 4.475 million people -- are fully privately insured whether they buy insurance on the exchange or pay in-part for or receive in-full health through their private sector employers.    

I bring those numbers to the fore to highlight not the struggles of those receiving government insurance, but instead, the very real struggles of the 4.475 million people who are not. We represent a distinct minority of New Yorkers who have been taking an inordinate amount of abuse at the hands of the state while so many others have been granted benevolence from it.

It’s bad enough that we and our employers have to pay insanely-high amounts for insurance which rises at what averages out to be an almost unbelievable 5 percent per year over the past 8 years; or that the average family plan has a premium of $9,990 and a deductible of $7,980; or that we could easily be bankrupted by having to pay that deductible in a time of personal crisis (if the premium didn’t ruin family finances already).

But, rather than granting relief from those costs, the state gives us misery and is looking to dole out more of that.

New York State already imposes four taxes on individuals and their employers who buy health insurance. There is the covered lives assessment which is a surcharge placed on every covered family member which in 2015 alone collected $1.1 billion. It is accompanied by a 9.63 percent tax on health services done at hospitals which helped the state glean $2.9 billion in 2015. That same year, a 0.83 percent assessment on insurers brought $240 million to state coffers while a 1.75 percent premium tax netted $353 million.

That’s $4.5 billion in taxes in just one calendar year.

Governor Cuomo will tell you that’s money collected from the insurance companies themselves. But, anyone with a basic understanding of economics knows that those costs are passed on to the consumer. It’s you and me who are paying those charges and fees.

The fact that Cuomo doesn’t understand that explains his latest assault on health insurers (which is an assault on the insured)… a fifth tax.

When he released his budget proposal last month he announced the creation of a new 14 percent surcharge on private health insurance companies. The Administration calls it a "healthcare insurance windfall profit fee" and it is his response to the federal government’s tax reform – he figures that the incredible drop in corporate income tax rates should be countered by an almost identical increase in state taxes to reap some of that “windfall” (money insurers would no longer be paying into federal collections).

That concept burst the bubbles of many of us who assumed, and rightly so, that the significant savings achieved from tax reform would have been passed on to the insured; after all, we’ve heard of other large enterprises across the country (like utility companies) that are keen on sharing the wealth with their customers. 

What does this mean?

Employers that provide health insurance know that its embedded taxes are among the highest taxes they pay. With no end in sight to rising costs, worst case would be that companies that compete globally will just get up and leave the state as they have been. The more likely scenario is that many of them will follow the lead of others and go to high deductible plans with employees having to shoulder that deductible.  

As I said earlier, those deductibles can harm a working family -- too few can claim to have thousands of dollars sitting around for family emergencies. When a health crisis does happen and they eat that expense, they either claim bankruptcy or take on another massive debt payment.

Maybe that’s exactly what Cuomo wants to happen to them. Then they’d be able to join the 15 million plus who are receiving government health insurance. It kind of fits with the universal health care narrative (he’s already three-quarters of the way there). And, at the same time, this is an actual manifestation of his deeply-held anti-Trump rhetoric.

Whatever his reasons may be, we can’t let the windfall tax happen. Those who buy health insurance pay enough. Companies need relief. Families need relief. Our economy needs relief.

If you are among us who are privately ensured I encourage you to reach out to your elected officials and tell them to reject S. 7509/A.9509 (Revenue Article VII Bill) Part DD which would impose this sickening new tax.

        

From the 05 February 2018 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

Cell phone safety tax needs to be put where it belongs

If you take a look at your cell phone bill you will see a $1.20 line item called the “New York Public Safety Communications Surcharge”. Originally appearing as an E911 tax, it was put into place in the 1990s – at $0.70 per month – to provide the state with money to upgrade 911 call centers and public safety communications systems. 

By intent, it was a worthwhile tax as emergency dispatchers needed to keep up with the explosive development of wireless phone technology. Plus, as we unfortunately saw during the horrific events of 9/11, interoperability of two-way devices for police officers and firemen was a “must-have” that they didn’t have at all.

But, intent and realty are two entirely different things, especially when it comes to government and money.

Misappropriation might be too strong of a word (since it implies criminality), but there is likely no more accurate term to describe the state’s ongoing misuse of this tax. Of the $14.40 that you pay into the purported use of the tax each year, only around $5.00 goes to where it belongs. The rest -- $9.40 – is put into the state’s general fund and spent on anything under the sun.

At first glance, it may seem like a pittance to some folks, but consider the growth of the cell phone industry since the tax came to be. Cell phones of all shapes and styles are now used by what seems to be every man, woman, and, yes, child in the Empire State. What once was a luxury has taken on an air of necessity. The family that used to share one landline now has wireless devices for everyone in the household. Putting that to numbers: Last year, there were over 238 million cell phones in the United States.  In 1991, when the legislature introduced the tax, there were only 7.5 million cell phone subscribers in the country. That’s a lot of new sources of revenue from which our state – and others – reap.

In recent years, New York State has collected over $185 million annually from the tax. That number is set to grow as, one, more smartphones and tablets are being put into circulation, and, two, the state just put into play in December a revision to the tax that collects another 90 cents at the point of sale on pre-paid phones.   

In most years, only a third to 40 percent of the funds are put to use across the state for their intended purpose. This has been hanging out to dry local taxpayers as their municipalities upgrade their communications system to meet today’s needs and expectations.

Case in point, consider what happened with the new police and fire radio system that was launched in Niagara County two years ago. It was not only necessary by federal mandate (a 9/11 aftermath), but also by actual need: If you listened to the police scanner before everyone went digital in 2015 you heard numerous first responders struggling to communicate with dispatch from radio dead zones throughout the county.

At a price tag of $10 million it wasn’t a cheap investment. Of that amount, only a fifth was funded by the safety communications tax when in theory -- and actual designation of state law -- it should have been fully funded by the cell phone tax. The other $8 million to cover the County’s project had to come from cash flows and borrowing of money….local taxpayers were footing the bill.

It shouldn’t be that way. The state isn’t playing by its own rules when it comes to the tax. It shouldn’t hold the purse strings and pit county against county through a “competitive” grant process for them to get back just a fraction of the amount that was collected. By doing so, the state is tightening the thumb screws on already cash-strapped municipalities and taxpayers while sacrificing their safety in the process.

This legislative session, the Governor and the Legislature need to develop real strategies to keep the tax out of the general fund. They need to do with the tax exactly what was intended, after all, the state already digs into our phone bills at a 4 percent clip every billing cycle. Let them have that and let us have what we deserve and what we need. 

From the 29 January 2018 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News