Report critical of lawmakers
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The Policy Institute, a liberal think tank in Helena, released a report entitled “Profiles in Hypocrisy” on March 11. The report listed 33 currently serving legislators who received conservation, disaster and commodity subsidies during the 14-year period from 1995 to 2009.
The point of the report is “to show the hypocrisy that exists between the professed ideological viewpoints of some legislators and their personal willingness to benefit from the very types of programs they publicly condemn.”
Topping the list was Janna Taylor, R-Dayton, an owner of Twin Creek Ranch, Inc. with $1,017,491. Also on the list was Dan Salomon, R-Ronan, with $223,965 and Joe Read, R-Ronan, $2,233.
Taylor said the report did not take into account the size of the ranches involved or the acres of crops. Also, the disaster payments are federal insurance payments.
“The ranch pays for its own insurance,” Taylor noted, “and it has paid in more than it has received over the years.”
When her family bought the ranch, Taylor said it was already involved in the Conservation Reserve Program, which generates conservation subsidies.
“We are removing about half at this time as those contracts expire,” Taylor said.
“Subsidies in the U.S. are part of a cheap food policy controlled by congress. It insures that we pay the lowest percentage of disposable income on food,” Taylor explained. “Lower than any other society in the history of the world, less than 20 percent, compared to 50 percent for India or 70 percent for most of Africa.”
Salomon agreed, saying the money his dairy received was for the cheap food policy, some disaster payments and low milk prices.
Disaster programs guarantee food is always available, Taylor added. Farm subsidies help insure that most of food is produced locally, rather than in Argentina or Brazil.
The Policy Institute said they used information from the online database of the Environmental Work Group. The report can be accessed at thepolicyinstitute.org.
