Miller-Meeks Meets With Local Ag Leaders
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Iowa’s 2nd Congressional Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks was in Oskaloosa to hear about and discuss the current ag climate with representatives of Farm Credit Services of America here in Oskaloosa this past week.
“We’re learning about the issues that right now are affecting agriculture,” said Miller-Meeks of her visit. “There are some constraints in the supply chain as far as purchasing implements. And also, then for those who raise livestock, there’s still some problems with pricing of cattle and the break-even point for cattle. So I learned some things today about import as well as the supply chain.”
In talking about the proposed infrastructure bill, and the potential for inflationary price increases, and some increases in taxes for businesses, Miller-Meeks said, “the average person, average worker, average family is going to be paying for that. It’s not just, you know, large corporations. So they propose to raise revenue by increasing taxes on employers, which is going to affect us and our bottom line. And as farmers in our agricultural community, they’re very concerned about the increase in taxes and getting rid of the step-up basis for purchasing land and agriculture. So those issues are really important.”
On the subject of the current labor shortage, Representative Miller-Meeks said. “Right now, we are seeing there’s a huge demand for labor. And we can’t get labor and people into the workforce. And I’m not talking about jobs that pay $7.25 an hour; I don’t even know of a job, even if that’s the federal minimum wage, I don’t know of any employer that’s paying that. They’re all paying much more than that. And to get workers at $16 to $20 an hour and even, I’ve talked to some employers, to get people to come in to jobs that are 80 to 130 thousand a year, or they’re having difficulty. So we need to get rid of the pandemic emergency measures that were put in place, and that were just passed in January, that had increased enhanced federal unemployment benefits. We need to relinquish that so we can get people back in the workplace.”
