Summary Report

SUMMARY REPORT 67 th Annual Meeting of the SOUTHERN LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE Mobile, Alabama | July 27 - 31, 2013 SOUTHERN LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE of THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS SEPTEMBER 2013 Meeting Highlights Inside: Meeting Highlights . .. 2 Campaign Against Hunger . 3 Meeting Summaries Agriculture & Rural Development . 4 Economic Development, Opening Plenary Transportation & Cultural Affairs . 6 Education . 8 BO JACKSON Energy & Environment . 10 Fiscal Affairs & Government Operations . .. 12 Human Services & Public Safety . 14 Legislative Service Agency Workshop . 16 Legislative Fiscal Plenary . 18 Technical Tours . 19 Conference Notes . 20 SLC & Committee Leadership . 22 Sponsors . 23 Host State Committee & Staff . 23 SLC 2014 » Little Rock, Arkansas . 24 During four days in July, meeting in Mo- bile, Alabama, legislators from across the Legislative Fiscal Plenary South joined together with policy ex- perts to discuss, review, and consider the Greg Canfield, Secretary, Alabama opportunities that exist to bring prosper- ity and promise to states and communi- Department of Commerce ties in the region . In addition to presentations and dialogue on substantive issues, each standing committee of the Southern Legislative Con- ference conducted a roundtable discussion and summary of legislative activities from the 2013 session, elected officers for the committee, and considered any policy positions that were presented for adop- tion by members . Presentations from committee sessions, where available, and attendance lists for committee sessions can be found on the SLC website at www.slcatlanta.org/AL2013 . The meeting summaries in this report are condensed overviews of speaker Closing Plenary presentations made at substantive sessions of the SLC standing committees. Stephen Foster Black 2 The SLC Annual Meeting Takes on Hunger in the South According to Feeding America, in Alabama alone, 936,410 residents, 19 5. percent of the state population, face food insecurity . In response to this national crisis affecting more than 50 million Americans and disproportionately affecting Southern households, the Southern Legislative Confer- ence (SLC) of The Council of State Governments established the “SLC/Mark Norris Campaign Against Hunger” project . This year’s community service food packaging event brought together nearly 200 annual meeting participants to assemble 20,000 meals to be distributed to families in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi through the Bay Area Food Bank, serving the central Gulf Coast . The “SLC/Mark Norris Campaign Against Hunger” is one of several packaging events coordinated by Outreach Inc ,. an Iowa-based nonprofit that recently was awarded the prestigious Daily Point of Light Award by President Barack Obama and President George H . W . Bush, presented at the White House, for their long-standing commit- ment to provide food, water, medical care and education to millions of children in the United States and in East Africa . In addition to the packaged meals, the Bay Area food bank received a $1,500 00. donation from the Southern Legislative Conference of The Council of State Govern- ments . An additional $1,500 00. donation was made to Outreach, Inc . 3 AGRICULTURE & RURAL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING SUMMARY Sunday, July 28 Water Management and Agriculture Richard McNider, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Atmospheric and Mathematical Sciences, University of Alabama, Huntsville Mark Masters, Ph.D., Executive Manager, ACF Stakeholders, Inc ,. Georgia New Options for Rural Housing Marion McElroy, 20K Manager, Auburn University Rural Studio, New York Representative Andy Anders Louisiana | Chair Monday, July 29 Water Management and Agriculture Farm Bill Update Nathan Smith, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Extension Economist, Even for non-farmers, the importance of wa- University of Georgia ter to agriculture is a given . Too little rain or too much can be catastrophic for crops, and The New Extension Service smaller variations in timing and amounts Jimmy Henning, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Extension and Director of the Cooperative can have an outsized impact on crop yields, Extension Service, University of Kentucky prices, feed costs and farm income . Agricul- tural water management, the development tershed . What the region lacks, however, New Options for Rural Housing and implementation of infrastructure to re- is investment in infrastructure, including Low-income Americans living in rural com- serve and deliver water to fields when it is off-stream storage and delivery, and poli- munities face significant challenges in se- needed, is still not widely established in the cies, including interbasin transfer and wa- curing housing, including limited options, Southeast . ter withdrawal restrictions tied to water minimal financing opportunities, and poor insurance programs Several. state and quality alternatives . As a response to the Water management in the West, which has federal programs are in place to encour- need for better options for rural residents, allowed for impressive productivity in the age improved and expanded irrigation, Auburn University’s College of Architecture region for agriculture, is facing increased ur- but the greatest concentration of invest- established the Rural Studio to provide stu- ban demands, even as the long-term irriga- ment remains in the West . dents with hands-on experience designing tion of soils leads to increased salinization and building projects in Hale County, Ala- and selenium contamination in soils un- An early recognition that water manage- bama, one of the poorest places in the Unit- accustomed to significant water, reducing ment comprises more than just a plan to use ed States . yields and land use . more water moved Georgia to undertake a permitting process for water withdrawals The Rural Studio has created a wide range For the South, the diminishing opportuni- for agricultural use in 1988, grandfathering of projects, including single family homes, ties in the West and risks associated with in existing uses . Following a moratorium churches, community centers and play- concentration in corn represents an oppor- on new permits in 1999, the state passed the grounds . For the past decade, the Studio has tunity to increase the use of water manage- Flint River Drought Protection Act the fol- been developing a housing option that could ment systems in the region, particularly lowing year in response to low flows in transform rural, low-cost housing on a large with corn . Irrigation has been demonstrat- the watershed . The Act provided a mecha- scale . The 20K house is a single resident ed to more than mitigate the soil disadvan- nism for farmers to auction off their water home intended to be constructed for $20,000 tage with which Southern growers contend, rights for a season in the event of a declared (the amount a person living at the poverty and because transportation costs are low- drought . The state established a program line can afford to pay for a mortgage) to ad- er for regionally grown and delivered corn, of metering withdrawals and mapping the dress a need for affordable housing, improve corn producers in the South with irrigation wellheads and field locations, providing the housing for residents and to extend housing potentially will see higher net prices . state with a robust database of where and how options for those who don’t have financing much water is used . options . Additionally, because the cost pro- Compared to the West, where utiliza- vides for labor ($8,000) and locally sourced tion of available water is at or above total This information has become an essential materials ($12,000), the houses provide ben- capacity (resulting in water deficits for component of the water use planning pro- efits to the local economy . The 20K proj- many later appropriators), the Southeast cess, which the state has devolved to regional ect is making a transition from project to uses on average 10 percent of the avail- water councils empowered to develop water product, with the goal of commercial devel- able water, with peak utilization seldom use plans, shifting decision making to a more opment by private builders and supportive rising above 40 percent in any given wa- local level . housing groups . 4 Farm Bill Update context, with the discussion much more par- terpiece of the safety net for farmers could Every five to seven years, Congress must pass tisan and somewhat less regional . have some interesting consequences . Most comprehensive farm legislation known as problematic of all will be the missing nutri- the Farm Bill or U S. farm policy reverts to This past spring, the Senate passed a bipar- tion title in the House legislation . Congress permanent law last updated in 1949, and sub- tisan Farm Bill that included $23 billion in does not need reauthorization to continue to stantially older than that in many parts . Af- cuts . House legislation was passed out of com- fund federal nutrition programs but without ter a major rewrite in 1996 and 2002, the 2007 mittee with larger cuts, but it unexpected- them in the Farm Bill, it is highly unlikely Farm Bill amounted to a less ambitious ad- ly failed on the floor of the House . A month that the Senate will pass, or the president will justment, providing a long period of stable later, the House approved along party lines a sign, any Farm Bill legislation . farm policy . Farm Bill that removes the nutrition title en- tirely, and includes cuts to commodities and The New Extension Service The 2007 Farm Bill technically expired in conservation, with a total savings to the fed- The Cooperative Extension Service cele- 2012, but Congress at that time failed to find eral budget of $12 9. billion over 10 years, and brates its centenary in 2014 . After 100 years, a suitable compromise to pass legislation and makes the Farm Bill permanent legislation . this unique federal-state-county partner- instead enacted a one-year extension . The ship remains an important part of the na- reasons a Farm Bill was so difficult in 2012 re- In most respects, the farm policy propos- tion’s agriculture and rural development main largely unchanged .

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