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Alloway Supports Restoration of Funding for Vital Agriculture InitiativesHARRISBURG – Senator Richard Alloway II (R-33) supported the restoration of more than $5.3 million in funding to vital agriculture programs on Monday. We recognized the fact that agriculture took a major hit in the budget. I reached out to the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Mike Brubaker and dairy farmer, Senator Elder Vogel. We created a priority list of funding items that we believed were crucial to our agriculture community. Together we approached our legislative leaders and asked that some funding be restored for certain agriculture programs. I know this does not fully fund all agriculture programs but with limited revenues we felt we had to restore some funding. We are committed to not raising taxes during these difficult times. I hope you find the programs that I focused on to be of great importance. The restorations were included in the amended version of House Bill 1416, a state spending plan that reduces overall spending to $27.14 billion for Fiscal Year 2009-10, restores higher education and PHEAA funding to the General Fund and balances the budget without a tax increase. As amended, House Bill 1416 restored funding to eight line items in the Department of Agriculture, including agriculture research, crop insurance, farm safety, agricultural conservation easement administration, Pennsylvania fairs, the Center for Agricultural Excellence and the Animal Health and Diagnostic Commission. "Agriculture is one of the most important sectors of our local economy, and I was proud to work with my colleagues who represent the agriculture community to restore funding for these important programs. The bottom line is the Philadelphia Democrats want to raise taxes and spend 4% more than last year. The Republicans want no tax increase and spent 3% less than last year, which has never happened in Pennsylvania government," Alloway said.
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