Minutes-12/8/1999

TO: Council 12/99 Government payments on 1999 Crop. Government crop payment can go to the owner, the renter or both parties. For the 1999 crop we have passed all the deadlines and cannot receive any payments. For the 2000 Crop we could sign up for payments. Here is the way it was explained to me. If the city were to try to collect ½ of the payments—the payment amount would be added to a pool under the entity of the State of Iowa—as the city is a subgovernmental entity under the State of Iowa. It was explained that no one entity can received more than $40,000 in government payments. So, the 40,000 received by the State of Iowa would be divided among the state, and counties and parks that have agricultural crops growing. The City of Tiffin would only receive a small fraction of this $40,000 because we are counted under the entity of the State of Iowa. It could be that if we cash rented to Cleo Beckler (or anyone else) that because they are operator of the farm they could receive 100% of the government Freedom to Farm payment. The cash renter would know now the amount of the Freedom to Farm cash Payment and could depend on this income to help pay the cash rent to the City of Tiffin. It seems we would want a cash rental agreement with the operator for next year and the cash renter will need to sign government papers by August of 2000 to receive the Freedom to Farm cash payments. If there were LDP money the cash renter (Cleo or someone else) would need to sign up for this also. The City really can’t get governmental payments –only the minimal amount I explained above. It doesn’t appear the crop sharing would be the way for us to go. It looks like cash renting is what we should do for next year. Cash rent gives the renter the most money (he can pick up government money which we can’t) and that renter can pass some of that benefit along to the city. --Martie