Which businesses would pay more property tax under Proposition 15? It’s complicated [Los Angeles Times]
… Critics remain unconvinced by the promise of protecting small businesses and have warned its protection for agricultural land includes a worrisome loophole. … Farmers, in particular, believe the ballot measure’s silence on land improvements could mean higher property tax assessments for barns, offices — and even fruit trees planted as part of new farming operations. “This affects agriculture,” Jamie Johansson, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation and an Oroville farmer, said during the Sacramento Press Club debate. “And multiple-generation farmers, as well as first-time farmers like myself, are vulnerable.”
Editorial: California’s next big tax gulp [Wall Street Journal]
Sooner or later California’s public unions had to hit up the hoi polloi to pay for their pensions after soaking what’s left of the state’s millionaire class, and here they come. … Unions say their initiative will only hit wealthy corporations, but not even the Democratic-friendly NAACP believes that whopper, which is why it and minority business groups are campaigning against the initiative. Anyone who owns a couple of fast food franchises would get walloped. Ditto small dairies, wineries, orchards and manufacturers, though Democrats in the Legislature have charitably proposed to exempt solar farms.
Left without school or day care, farmworkers are bringing their kids to work [Washington Post]
… The coronavirus has created a distinct crisis for impoverished farmworkers across the country. Many live in rural areas with limited access to day care and rely on schools and specialized programs to watch their children while they work long hours in the fields; without those lifelines, parents have resorted to bringing their children to work, potentially risking their health and safety to maintain an income. Experts say this has led to more kids laboring alongside their parents, a long-standing issue in the agriculture industry that has been exacerbated by the pandemic, and worry the return to online schooling will leave vulnerable families without reliable Internet access further behind.
Union challenges Trump plan to ditch farmworker wage survey [Courthouse News Service]
The Trump administration’s decision to abruptly discontinue a 110-year-old survey that helps set minimum wage for immigrant farmworkers will lead to pay cuts for millions of U.S. and guest agricultural laborers across the country, a farmworkers union claims in a new lawsuit. … In its 26-page lawsuit, United Farm Workers — the largest agricultural union in the U.S. — claims the USDA failed to provide an adequate justification, consider all issues relevant to its decision or provide notice and an opportunity for public comment as required by the Administrative Procedure Act.
https://www.courthousenews.com/union-challenges-trump-plan-to-ditch-farmworker-wage-survey/
Suburban sprawl forces a longtime Sacramento business to move. Blame the animal carcasses [Sacramento Bee]
… Suburban residential subdivisions are edging closer to the rendering plant. It’s led to nearly 600 odor complaints from newly arrived east county residents in the last three years, according to the Sacramento air quality management district. … Michael Koewler, whose family has owned the plant for three generations, plans to demolish the facility and sell the site to a developer or home builder, while building a new plant elsewhere in the region, farther away from residences.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/sacramento-tipping-point/article246319720.html
Alphabet is trialing solar-paneled, robotic buggies to inspect farm crops [CNBC]
Tech giant Alphabet’s so-called “moonshot factory” — also known as X — has shared details about a project that’s aiming to transform agriculture and food production using technologies including robotics, software and satellite imagery. … A key part of the plan is to use low-emission electric buggies on farmland. These vehicles, which use solar panels, are able to travel across fields, utilizing GPS software to determine the exact location of plants. Cameras and “machine perception tools” are then used to gather reams of data on the crops.
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