Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
A couple of weeks ago, Rhonda and Commissioner Troxler talked about the end of the Tobacco Transition Payment Program and the possibility that the final payment could be subject to automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration. Last week, USDA announced that the final year of the Tobacco Transition Payment Program would be exempt from sequestration. It was news that many farmers were happy to hear.
But Commissioner points out that the news wasn’t as great as first believed. The reality is that payment recipients will get only 95 percent of their amount in the next two months. The remaining 5 percent of the payment isn’t scheduled to be made until after the new federal budget year begins in October. It could be a while after that before the payment is actually made.
Commissioner Troxler says tobacco farmers and former quota holders need to understand that the check they receive early this year isn’t going to be as big as they might have expected.
Click on the audio player below to listen to Commissioner Troxler and Rhonda discuss the tobacco transition payments and why 5 percent isn’t a small amount of money.
[Audio:http://info.ncagr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Troxler_1-14.mp3|titles=Today’s Topic for Jan. 14]
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