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Proposed fee to fund Illinois conservation districts fails to move

The executive director of the Association of Illinois Soil & Water Conservation Districts says a proposal that would have provided stable funding for local districts failed to move out of the General Assembly’s spring session.

Eliot Clay says the bipartisan bill would have assessed a fee on any agricultural land taken out of production for things like solar, wind, or commercial development.

“A flat $275.00 an acre.”  He says, “We do think, conservatively, this would have netted somewhere in the realm of $14 to $15 million for districts.”

He says roughly 60,000 acres of Illinois farmland is taken out of production annually.  For the second straight year, the state’s 97 districts have received only $4.5 million for operating expenses. 

Clay tells Brownfield, “That’s why we were pretty dismayed and disappointed in how this turned out.”  He says, “We really feel like the legislature dropped the ball given the financial situation going on in the state. This was a way to generate funding without putting it on the backs of taxpayers.”

Clay says his organization and several others plan to build on the momentum of the proposal during the legislature’s fall veto session.

AUDIO: Eliot Clay – AISWCD