A Marriage Made in Congress

Readers of my wife’s blog, The Cleaner Plate Club, know that she gets pretty hot and bothered about the Farm Bill, and I don’t mean in that hot and bothered way she gets about food writer Michael Pollan. Yes, she was none too pleased that the new Farm Bill passed by Congres has done little to address the insanity of federal subsidies being given to industrial mega-farms that produce unhealthful commodity crops, thus making it even more difficult for small farms growing good food to compete.

So I felt mixed emotions when I got an email today from the terrific folks at CFED (who monitor changes to federal and state policy for asset development and microenterprise) announcing that the new federal Farm Bill contained $5 million annually for an “Individual Development Account (IDA) Pilot Program for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers.” Who doesn’t love “beginning farmers and ranchers”? In the Benjamin household, that sounds like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial: “Hey, you got your peanut butter in my chocolate…” But wait, it’s really (all together now) “two great tastes that taste great together.”

Sure, I’m glad to see innovative asset development strategies find their way into the Farm Bill, but it feels a bit like it comes at the expense of sound agricultural policy. And how does $5 million well-spent compare to the billions that are undermining our food system? It’s an accessory that helps dress up an otherwise ugly bill, making it less likely for people like me to bad-mouth it. I feel used.

Just imagine if there had been real reform to the Farm Bill, AND it had supported IDAs for farmers and ranchers. Then The Cleaner Plate Club and Asset Almanac could have bought some vino, turned up the Marvin Gaye, and gotten it on into the wee hours with some blogosexual healing. Ali and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in a few short days, and this Farm Bill could have been an early anniversary present from our friends in Washington. Instead, our anniversary celebration will take us in the general direction of Canada — wishful thinking — without our blogs (or our children) in tow, leaving them to work out their differences free of parental supervision. Oh, if only congress knew what an opportunity they had missed.

Here’s one consolation: with re-authorization of the Farm Bill every 5 years, they can still make it up to us on our 15th….or 20th….or 25th….

Oregon Individual Development Account Initiative

My Bloglines feed for “individual development accounts” doesn’t turn up a lot of bloggers spreading the gospel about IDAs, but today it introduced me to a site called Nonprofit Girl writing about Oregon’s innovative IDA initiative that not only provides support for the asset development aspirations of low-income families, but also invites state residents to make contributions to The Neighborhood Partnership Fund in support of IDAs, for which they receive a state tax credit (which I assume is in addition to a federal tax deduction for those donors who itemize their taxes).

I’ve long been wrestling with my own ideas about how individual donors could be encouraged to provide support for IDAs, so I was delighted to learned about a model that’s already in place and has found backing through state tax policy. I’ll have to bring this up with my fellow IDA advocates who make up Massachusetts’ Midas Collaborative to find out if they think the Massachusetts legislature would consider such policy.

The more I talk with people about IDAs, the more I sense that many individual donors around the country (not just in Oregon) would be eager to support the social change model that IDAs represent. People are troubled by the wage stagnation and growing income inequality in America, but they worry that soup kitchens and homeless shelters, while important parts of the social safety net, can’t address the root causes of poverty. Likewise, donors sense that there’s little an individual can do with a modest donation to reverse the weakening job prospects of low-income workers. But an individual donor could potentially have a major impact on the prospects of a low-income family through support for an IDA designed to provide the first rungs of a ladder out of poverty.

Thanks to Christine at Nonprofit Girl for highlighting the Oregon IDA Initiative.

State Funds for IDAs

Massachusetts Department of Housing & Community Development is now reviewing a new set of applications for IDA program support in fiscal year 2009, which begins July 1.  It’s nice that they’re collecting the applications now even though the FY09 state budget hasn’t yet been confirmed.

My recently launched Assets for Artists project is again part of the state-wide application from the Midas collaborative, so we have a reasonably strong chance of landing support for another 14 low-income artists in Berkshire County to open IDAs in the fall or winter in addition to the 9 artists who will be chosen for IDAs this spring (that first-round selection process is still underway, news on that soon).

By the way, I’m happy to report that the amended budget proposal recently approved in the Massachusetts House of Representatives included a line item of $700,000 for IDAs in FY09 — an increase of $100,000 over last year; not bad to possibly get an increase during such a lean budget season.  Soon the Senate has to weigh in (and then the Governor has his chance to veto items), so we don’t yet know if that increase will stand, but it looks promising.

I reached out to our legislative delegation in Berkshire County to let them know that low-income artists in Berkshire County would likely benefit from the IDA line item.  I thought that would make it something they’d be even more keen to support, as they have all shown a great understanding for how important our creative economy is to Berkshire County.  I still don’t know exactly how the House decides which amendments to include in their final amended budget bill.  With over a thousand proposed amendments, they can’t vote on each one individually, can they?  Maybe some small group of power brokers decides which amendments to include before putting the amended bill to a vote by the full chamber.  Or not. That’s something I’d like to learn.  Does each individual legislator actually get to vote up or down on each proposed budget amendment, or is the real process a bit more efficient (less transparent) than that?  If any Massachusetts advocacy wonks read this, please weigh in.