WV Farm Bureau Magazine January 2015 | Page 21

Bureau supports the WVSOM. 67. INCREASED TUITION FOR NONRESIDENT STUDENTS, FOREIGN STUDENTS & PRISONERS West Virginia Farm Bureau recommends increased tuition sufficient to cover the state’s cost of education for out-of-state and foreign students and incarcerated prisoners at state supported colleges and universities. We wish to express our concern about methods used to determine residency. 68. WV DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Realizing that in excess of one-half billion dollars of West Virginia’s annual income is derived from agriculture and allied industries, West Virginia Farm Bureau believes it is imperative that the West Virginia Department of Agriculture be maintained and financially supported. The proceeds from all sales of property maintained by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture should be retained by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. For Sale Ear Corn $150 per ton 6 Ft Pickup Bed $100 8 Ft Pickup Bed $135 Valley Bend, WV 304-338-4856 Natural Resources and Environment 69. GENERAL POLICY ON OIL & GAS West Virginia Farm Bureau recognizes the importance of the oil and natural gas industry to the State of West Virginia and supports the responsible development of this industry, provided adequate protection is afforded to the state’s agricultural and other natural resources. Farm Bureau recognizes the importance of private property rights in our society and supports the rights of land and mineral owners to negotiate freely with other parties, but recognizes that certain proposals for unitization for oil and gas extraction may create opportunities for Farm Bureau members which outweigh any objections to the process. Farm Bureau believes that land use decisions should be made only after consideration of the impacts of any land use decision on the entire property, and that severance of the surface and subsurface estates is not only ill-advised as a matter of agricultural policy, but unduly burdensome to the eventual owners of each estate, and to our government for record keeping. Farm Bureau supports proposals that bring about the reunification of the surface and subsurface estate in all circumstances where the owner of a subsurface estate is missing, unidentifiable, unaccounted for, or fails to pay the mineral taxes. Moreover, Farm Bureau believes that proceeds from extractive industries should accrue to the benefit of those who own and harvest those resources, and those from whose lands these resources are extracted. Farm Bureau supports proposals that direct the payments due an unidentifiable, missing, or unaccounted for mineral owner under an existing lease agreement to the owner of the surface estate rather West Virginia Farm Bureau News 21