Pictured above, Farm Bureau member Carl Holloway of Holloway’s Christmas Tree Farm in Nipomo gave us a tour of their operation ahead of the holiday season. Watch the video on our Instagram page here or Facebook here.

You can find the SLO Tribune's list of local businesses offering Christmas Tree pickup locations here.

California Farm Bureau 2022 Leadership Farm Bureau Applications are due December 17. Apply Here.

Review the agenda items here and watch the meeting here. Items of interest to agriculture include: 

For the Spanish version, click here.

For the Spanish Version, click here.

California Farm Bureau's Friday Review.

Lori Johnston & Chris Castillo purchased Asunción Valley Farm the last days of 2013 from the Heilmann family of Templeton (one of the early families who settled the Templeton & Atascadero area of San Luis Obispo County). Our family is honored to take over the reins of this gorgeous valley, after the Heilmann’s watched over it for more than a century.

(805) 610-3054 asuncionvalleyeq.com

American Riviera Bank, Bank of the Sierra Corporation

Clint Kuhnle, Janell Dusi, HM Holloway, Frank Ricigliano, Amanda Marsalisi, David Alford, Olympio Fiscalini Jr, Paso Robles Wine County Alliance, George Lehnhoff, Diane Eeckhout, David Crye

In partnership with the National Immigration Forum’s New American Workforce, employees of Farm Bureau members who are eligible for U.S. citizenship receive exclusive access to citizenship services including an online, application portal and free legal assistance to facilitate in completing the N-400 Citizenship application. Detailed information and tips are provided through citizenship portal along with help desk access for navigating technology and services. While the USCIS application filing fees still apply, fee waiver eligibility and other options can be explored with legal provider as part of consultation. 

Encourage your employees to visit the citizenship portal to learn more about the process and begin the citizenship application today! For more information and to answer any questions, please contact the Help Desk at: citizenship@immigrationforum.org. 

Read the full article here.

Our weekly E-News is sent out every Friday to our membership and local leaders. If you're interested in an effective, low-cost advertising campaign ($150 a month) please give us a call or send an email to SLO County Farm Bureau Executive Director Brent Burchett.

What: An initiative to amend the state constitution to restore the ability of parents to transfer property to their children upon death without triggering a reassessment and increase in property taxes.

Why: Many voters did not understand that Proposition 19, which passed narrowly in November 2020, took away constitutional protections that allowed families to keep their properties that parents worked hard to acquire.

Who: The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, California’s most influential taxpayer advocacy group and the proponent of taxpayer protection initiatives including Proposition 13 (1978) and Proposition 218 (1996), is the proponent of the Repeal the Death Tax Act.

Background: California voters have repeatedly and emphatically rejected death taxes. Two ballot measures that were overwhelmingly approved in 1982 abolished and banned state inheritance and gift taxes. Soon after, with rising real estate values leading to unaffordable spikes in property tax bills upon reassessment of property transferred within families, the Legislature unanimously passed a measure to exclude homes and a limited amount of other property from reassessment when transferred between parents and children. This became Proposition 58 on the 1986 ballot and was approved by more than 75% of voters. In 1996, voters approved Proposition 193, extending the same tax rules to property transfers between grandparents and grandchildren if the children’s parents were deceased.

The problem: In 2020, Proposition 19 was presented to voters with a costly ad campaign that emphasized tax benefits for wildfire victims, disabled people and seniors, but failed to explain that the measure repealed the constitutional protections in Propositions 58 and 193. Proposition 19 has effectively reinstated a death tax in California. Reassessment of long-held family properties to market value upon the death of a parent means children who can’t come up with the cash to pay the new annual property tax bill will be forced to sell the family property.

The impact: Generational wealth-building, so important to families working their way up the economic ladder, was put at severe risk by Proposition 19’s repeal of Propositions 58 and 193. Decades of hard-won progress in communities across California will be set back by the forced sale of homes, small businesses and mom-and-pop rental properties.

The solution: The Repeal the Death Tax Act will restore Proposition 58 and Proposition 193 to the state constitution. It is retroactive to February 16, 2021 (the effective date of Prop. 19). To further protect families, the measure adds an adjustment for inflation to the exclusion from reassessment for a limited amount of other property in addition to the primary residence.

www.HJTA.org  

Join SLO County Farm Bureau now or renew your membership online. Go to slofarmbureau.org to join, or download the membership form PDF. Have your renewal notice available to speed up the process; you will need to enter your membership number, name and ZIP code. Renewal dues may be paid online or over the phone by credit card.