Multiple ballot issues could affect ag industries in individual states
Americans head to the polls Nov. 5 to elect their next president.
But within individual states, voters will also decide on local ballot issues, some of which could affect local ag industries.
Here are some ballot questions voters will be deciding on this Tuesday.
In South Dakota, for example, voters will choose if they support or oppose Referred Law 21.
This ballot would either uphold or repeal Senate Bill 201, which would “provide new statutory requirements for regulating linear transmission facilities, to allow counties to impose a surcharge on certain pipeline companies, and to declare an emergency,” the bill says.
The South Dakota Corn Growers Association supports the bill.
“We care about corn grind and about our domestic biofuel supply,” Danita Murray, the organization’s executive director, told DRGNews.
Issues like the war in Ukraine and COVID have shown people that if a product can be grown and processed domestically, it’s not a bad thing, she added.
But groups like the South Dakota Farmers Union (SDFU), and South Dakota Stockgrowers Association oppose the legislation.
Doug Sombke, president of the SDFU, says this bill only helps pipeline companies.
“They rewrite that law for one reason and one reason only. So that Summit Carbon Solutions could build their pipeline and get the permit from (Public Utilities Commission) that they were unable to get before this law was passed,” he told SDPB Radio.
Other Americans are voting on state minimum wages.
In Alaska, California and Missouri, people there will decide if they support increasing the state minimum wage to $15 and $18, respectively.
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
The same ballot in California and Missouri, as well as one in Nebraska, asks voters to choose if employers should provide earned paid sick leave for employees.
And in Washington, the electorate will decide on Initiative 2066.
This prohibits state and local governments from restricting access to natural gas.
The Washington Farm Bureau supports Initiative 2066 and encourages others to as well.
“Agriculture relies on natural gas for fertilizer production, dairy water heaters, grain drying, building/housing heat, and more,” the organization said in a Facebook post.