Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
Chronicle Staff Writer Zander Frost writes: Farmers say the 2023 New York State budget announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul includes tax credits that will help them ease the impact of a lowered agriculture overtime threshold.
Ideal Dairy owner John Dickinson told The Chronicle via text, “Hard not to be happy. This session invested more in agriculture than any other in the recent past.”
Mr. Dickinson and other local farmers urged the state not to lower from 60 to 40 hours the threshold above which they have to pay overtime, saying it would make it difficult to attract labor and undermine dairy farms’ economics. A panel backed the lowered threshold anyway.
The tax credit is designed to make the farmers whole. “I think a lot of the credit goes to the two Ag Chairs, Lupardo and Hinchey,” said Mr. Dickinson.
“They did not support lowering the [overtime] threshold and were real champions in the budget process.”
“I think it is fair to say now that the tax credit is in place we have no chance of keeping the threshold at 60. Let’s just hope she doesn’t lower it sooner than the wage board recommended,” he said.
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