Dairy Compact

Maybe it was just a coincidence that Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Robert Odom strolled into town looking like an old West gunslinger.Dressed in western shirt, blue jeans and shiny alligator cowboy boots, he was missing only the six-shooter to complete the image of a hired gun brought in to help Maryland's dairy farmers in their life-and-death battle to save their farms.But what he brought was more far-reaching: A plan to reverse the financial woes that have forced more than 40 percent of Maryland's dairy farms out of business since 1988.

Carroll County lawmakers said yesterday that the needs of the fast-growing county were largely ignored in an otherwise productive legislative session.A day after the session's end, Carroll lawmakers hailed extra school-construction funds for the county and an accelerated statewide income tax cut. But they were concerned by the fast pace of spending this year.And they complained that in the rush to help larger or poorer counties with extra state funding, midsized and relatively well-off Carroll was overlooked.

While Maryland businesses had few complaints with the just-completed session of the Maryland General Assembly, the state's largest utility suffered a major setback in its effort to alter its corporate structure.Flush with a $283 million surplus, lawmakers voted to accelerate an income tax cut that had been passed last year, reducing taxes by 5 percent instead of the planned 2 percent. At the same time, they approved funding for science and technology scholarships to confront what some see as the state's most pressing economic problem: the scarcity of high-technology workers.

Despite record grain harvests, the year just ended will not be remembered fondly by most Maryland farmers, and they have little reason to believe that 2001 will be any better. Grain and milk prices are expected to show some modest improvement but remain below levels of recent years. As farmers struggle to make ends meet, there are indications that agriculture lenders will be more tight-fisted. Grain prices dropped to 20-year lows last year as farmers harvested bumper crops. Instead of cashing in on the increased yields, they received $98.5 million in government handouts to help pay their bills and plant this year's crops.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's spin team still calls him "a uniter not a divider." But the description rings hollow after Vermont Sen. James Jeffords' departure from the Republican Party. When it counted, Dubya couldn't even keep his own senators united. Unity is a make-or-break proposition in a 50-50 Senate, where keeping all of your fellow partisans in line is about as easy as juggling 50 balls in the air -- or maybe 50 hand grenades. Drop one and you lose your majority and your ability to set the body's agenda.

When a $254 million aid package for Baltimore schools was hanging in the balance last year, Del. Ellen Willis Miller of Carroll County rose on the floor of the Maryland House to give an emotional speech in support of city schoolchildren.It was a risky move for Willis Miller, a Democrat from a county in which elected officials of her party are an endangered species.But yesterday, she and other rural delegates who cast tough pro-Baltimore votes in recent years got their reward. With strong support from the city delegation, the House of Delegates approved a dairy price-support bill that was as important to many of them as the 1997 school aid or 1996 Ravens stadium votes were to Baltimore.

The combination of drought and the lowest grain prices in more than a decade made 1998 one of the worst years ever for Maryland grain farmers, and this year isn't expected to be much better.The economic uncertainty in Asia is expected to continue to be a problem for agriculture, said Keith Collins, chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Asia accounts for 40 percent of U.S. farm exports and has a major impact on the prices farmers receive for their commodities, Collins said.

Seven years ago, when Maryland dairy farmers were fighting for the right to join a regional dairy compact to stem their steadily declining numbers, they were bitterly opposed by another major segment of the industry: the milk processors. Things haven't changed much today. Dairy farms still are disappearing in alarming numbers in Maryland. They are going out of business at a pace nearly twice the rate of the nation as a whole, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In rough numbers, Maryland had about 4,000 dairy farms in 1970.

RANDOLPH, Vt. - Over the knoll from Perry Hodgdon's place, a one-time farm has become a housing development. Hodgdon's own 100-acre dairy farm was once four separate ones, and may itself cease operations or get absorbed into another farm next year when Hodgdon hopes to retire. Family dairies, with their weathered barns and Ben-and-Jerry cows grazing on gentle green terrain, retain their hold on New England's physical and emotional landscape, even as they find it ever harder to stay afloat in the current tide toward larger-scale agriculture.

Don't spend budget surplus, give it back I want to elaborate on my opposition to Gov. Parris N. Glendening's agenda as addressed in his State of the State speech delivered in the Maryland General Assembly. First, I think it is important that we recognize that each of his proposals is attached to the state budget. The governor's initiatives will require a spending plan that increases Maryland's debt by more than $600 million. This increase in debt includes a $150 million increase in general obligations in fiscal 2001 and a $450 million increase in transportation debt during the next three years.