NY Farm Bureau Announces Wins in State Budget

Albany, NY — After months of tireless advocating on behalf of farmers and agricultural businesses across New York, the public policy team at New York Farm Bureau (NYFB) today announces several important agricultural funding items and legislation included in the 2025-2026 New York State Budget.

Key wins include:

• An extension of the Farm Workforce Retention Tax Credit to 2029: Many farms utilize this credit of $1,200 per eligible employee to offset increasing labor costs.
• An addition of $5 million to the Farmworker Housing Revolving Loan Fund: This fund supports the ability of farmers to receive no-interest loans to help finance improvement of existing housing or the construction/purchase of new housing for farm workers.
• Inclusion of funds to pay off the State Unemployment Insurance Debt: Since the pandemic, this debt has been a burdensome cost to businesses, including farms. Paying off this debt means businesses will no longer have to pay a surcharge on unemployment insurance.
• Overtime Tax Credit fix: Allows a corporate entity to claim the farm employer overtime tax credit and makes the tax credit retroactive for the 2024 and 2025 calendar years.
• Continued funding for commodity promotion and important research.
• $10 million for the Dairy Farm Modernization Grant, Farm and Food Growth Fund.
• $375,000 in new funding for the Cornell University Ruminant Center (CURC).
• Continued funding for the important research and work done by the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health (NYCAMH).
• Funding for Universal School Meals: These funds allow more schools to purchase food from New York farmers, helping to ensure that students across the state have more access to fresh, locally produced food.
• $425 million for the Environmental Protection Fund: This budget item includes funding for farmland protection and for farm water quality projects.
• $55 million for Nourish NY: This program helps people who are food insecure to access food while providing a market for farmers to sell their products. 

“New York Farm Bureau works hard all year to protect agriculture in New York State. It’s often a difficult process, but because we make our voice heard, we were able to secure these wins,” said New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher. “We thank Governor Hochul and the State Legislature, especially Senator Michelle Hinchey and Assemblymember Donna Lupardo, for hearing our concerns. We also thank our members for meeting with legislators and lending our support. We couldn’t have had all this success without them.”

Now that the budget is final, New York Farm Bureau will continue to work with legislators for the rest of the legislative session, scheduled to end on June 12.
 

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New York Farm Bureau is the state’s largest general agricultural advocacy organization. Its members and the public know the organization as “The Voice of New York Agriculture.” New York Farm Bureau is dedicated to solving the economic and public policy issues challenging the agricultural community.