Deceased Farmers Got USDA Payments

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

The U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed $1.1 billion over seven years to the estates or companies of deceased farmers and routinely failed to conduct reviews required to ensure that the payments were properly made, according to a government report.

In a selection of 181 cases from 1999 to 2005, the Government Accountability Office found that officials approved payments without any review 40 percent of the time.

The report cited a 1,900-acre soybean and corn farm in Illinois that collected $400,000 on behalf of an owner who lived in Florida before his death in 1995. The company did not notify the government of the death but certified each year that the dead shareholder, who owned 40 percent of the company, was "actively engaged" in managing the farm.

Most estates are allowed to collect farm payments for up to two years after an owner's death, giving heirs time to restructure their businesses and probate the will. After that, local USDA officials must certify every year that the estate is still farming and has remained open for reasons other than simply collecting subsidies.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072201128.html?hpid=topnews

[Vinca]

1. I should declare my garden a farm - maybe they'll pay for my health care. nt

[Maribelle]

3. In Florida large land holders will put a few cows on their land for the agricultural tax break

thus greatly reducing property taxes they will have to pay on the land.

In Florida you see it everywhere you go. A few cows grazing on valuable land adjacent to hospitals, large expensive housing developments.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0404-08.htm

[Xipe Totec]

4. In Galveston Co, a developer plowed a grove of trees, put up a golf course

and collected a tax break for creating "green space".

[Kali]

6. there is some movement towards trying to help small farmers again

but this stuff has been and continues to be primarily for the mega-"farms" all planted in monocultures of corn or soybeans etc - in otherwords ag-business, not your (more desirable, in my opinion) family farm with a variety of crops and animals, selling to local markets.

[LiberalFighter]

2. The local county Farm Services Bureau should know when a farmer has died

Or did they go back to being called the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service?

What the hell are they doing?

[harlinchi]

5. I don't know for sure but I'd suspect the recipients were wealthy and white.

Given the :sarcasm: huge amount of help the USDA has provided to Black and poor farmers, race notwithstanding, in loans given, terms received, etc., I can't imagine that Black and less wealthy farmers were left out of this 'pay-'em-even-when-they're-dead' scam, were they?

If it was a mistake, I'm sure the mistake extends across all types of USDA payment receivers, doesn't it? If it is not so spread across the payment receiver population, does that not indicate that the 'error' was 'jes a leetle intentional?

[Stargazer99]

7. Some firing should happen, don't these tax paid employeees

know their jobs? If not maybe they need to be replaced

[AngryAmish]

8. These are the folks getting agricultural subsidies in zip code 60618

<http://farm.ewg.org/sites/farmbill2007/s1614_addrsearch.php?yr=S1614&s=yup&zip=60618&z=Find+Recipients>

60618 is in the middle of Chicago.

It is a racket.

[IA_Seth]

9. one question..

If the owner of the land lived in Chicago, but the farm was located outside of town, what address would show?

[AngryAmish]

10. Chicago

Sometimes also land trust registered in a bank in Chicago would show up in these reports.

My point was that these are absentee landlords, not family farmers. They deserve none of our money, yet we pay them.

[IA_Seth]

11. Gotcha.

I didnt look at it that way (absentee). I agree with ya.