Western Virginia Land Trust E-Ne


Western Virginia Land Trust *E-News*	February 15, 2007
Legislative Alert! Western Virginia Land Trust members may be interested in knowing about two important issues facing our federal and state elected officials. State level The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) is the state agency that is the ultimate holder of most of the conservation easements that WVLT negotiates with landowners. The VOF Board of Trustees must approve every easement that VOF holds at one of their quarterly meetings. However, with the recent explosion in interest in conservation easements, VOF is understaffed and unable to cope with demand. Governor Kaine included $950,000 in additional VOF funding in his budget to the General Assembly, but unfortunately, the House of Delegates cut the funding from their version of the budget. The Senate included the funding. The two houses must now come to an agreement in conference before they can pass the budget. Without adequate staffing at VOF, many of the easements negotiated by WVLT will die on the vine this year! Kirk Cox (R-Chesterfield) is the delegate responsible for natural resources on the conference committee. The conference committee is due to wrap up their work at any moment. E-mail your local delegate NOW and ask him or her to encourage Delegate Cox to support additional funding for VOF. Delegate Charles W. Carrico, Sr. (Independence) Delegate David A. Nutter (Christiansburg) Delegate H. Morgan Griffith (Salem) Delegate Allen W. Dudley (Rocky Mount) Delegate Ward L. Armstrong (Martinsville) Delegate Onzlee Ware (Roanoke) Delegate James M. Shuler (Blacksburg) Delegate Daniel W. Marshall, III (Danville) Delegate Robert Hurt (Chatham) Delegate William H. Fralin, Jr. (Roanoke) Delegate Lacey E. Putney (Bedford) Delegate Kathy J. Byron (Lynchburg) Federal level As you may know, in 2006, Congress passed legislation providing increased tax incentives for landowners who place conservation easements on their properties. (Read more from the Wall Street Journal) The legislation: increases the federal deduction for donating an easement from 30% to 50% of adjusted gross income allows farmers to deduct 100% of adjusted gross income and extends the time frame to use the federal deduction from 5 to 15 years These incentives have been a boon for conservation here in Virginia and across the country. However, these tax benefits are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2007, unless Congress acts. Fortunately, Senators Max Baucus (D-Montana) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) have introduced Senate bill 469, legislation to make these tax incentives permanent. President Bush also supports making the incentives permanent. Without these tax incentives, many landowners will simply not be able to afford to place conservation easements on their properties. We encourage you to contact our senators and ask them to join as co-sponsors of S.469. Senator John Warner 1003 First Union Bank Building 213 South Jefferson Street Roanoke, VA 24011 Phone: (540) 857-2676 Fax: (540) 857-2800 http://www.senate.gov/~warner/contact/contactme.cfm Senator Jim Webb 3140 Chaparral Drive Building C, Suite 101 Roanoke, VA 24018 Phone: (540) 772-4236 Fax: (540) 772-6870 http://webb.senate.gov/contact.cfm, For more information on these issues, contact WVLT at (540) 985-0000 or by e-mail at rholnback@westernvirginialandtrust.org or dperry@westernvirginialandtrust.org.
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