CAMP HILL — The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau has lauded that the 2024-25 state budget funds the creation of an animal health diagnostic lab in Western Pennsylvania, contributes $50 million to the Clean Streams Fund, and invests $31 million to help farmers impacted by Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).
All three are key Pennsylvania Farm Bureau priorities.
PFB advocated for the need for an animal diagnostic lab in Western Pennsylvania to provide necessary testing for animals and helping speed up the results, allowing Pennsylvania to mitigate any infectious disease outbreak, like avian influenza, more effectively. Currently, the only diagnostic labs in Pennsylvania are located at Penn State, the University of Pennsylvania in Chester County and at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture office in Harrisburg. The site of the Western Pennsylvania lab has not yet been chosen.
The budget allocated more than $33 million in combined funding for Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, also known as Penn Vet, and Penn Medicine’s Division of Infectious Disease in 2024-25, despite the state withholding funding for the program last year. Funding for Penn Vet is crucial for agriculture, as it is the only-state funded veterinary school in the state.
Penn State ag research and Extension received flat funding at just under $58 million.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2024-25 budget also invests $10 million in agriculture innovation to help support new solutions and technologies including energy and conservation endeavors, funds the 2024-25 PA Farm Bill, funds Fresh Food Financing, PASS, and other food access initiatives.
Overall, the Department of Agriculture’s budget grows nearly 10 percent to $228 million, while general operations, centers of excellence and farmers market coupons will receive increased funding in the 2024-25 budget.
SB654 amends the Tax Reform Code, in personal income tax, further providing for classes of income to allow taxpayers with partial or full ownership of land on which taxable income is generated from the mining, extraction or production of oil, gas, ores, minerals or other natural resources to claim a deduction for depletion of a mine, oil and gas well and other natural deposit; and establishing the Public Transportation Trust Fund. Additionally, it allocates $50 million to the Clean Streams Fund and also reauthorizes the Rural Jobs Investment Tax Credit to support growth in rural businesses across Pennsylvania. This builds on the successes of the original program that started 5 years ago.
SB656 amends Title 75 (Vehicles) to establish an annual fee for electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), along with an Alternative Fuels Tax on electricity. It updates definitions related to EVs, adds penalties, and outlines guidelines for registering these vehicles. The legislation includes specific charges for highway maintenance and specifies that registration is contingent upon enrollment in a payment option. Key provisions will be effective immediately or by Jan. 1, 2025, with some sections effective in 24 months.
For electric vehicle drivers, it will eliminate the Alternative Fuel Tax on electricity for residential charging. Instead, EV drivers will be charged an annual fee, beginning at $200 in 2025 and increasing annually. Plug-in hybrid EV drivers will pay a significantly smaller fee, beginning at $50 in 2025. Shapiro signed SB656 into law on Wednesday.
