More Arizona Cotton Subsidies
A while back, I wrote the Porkbusters post on Arizona farm subsidies, which are mainly cotton subsidies. Cotton gets subsidized both with direct farm subsidies as well as price-subsidized water (this is a desert, after all, and unlike Egypt we don't have the Nile running through it).
Porkopolis is on the case with a further potential subsidy, as the US Government is apparently transferring a valuable piece of Phoenix commercial real estate to Arizona cotton growers:
A review of the final bill passed by both the House and the Senate shows that Senators DeWine and Voinovich, along with 97 other Senators,
voted for a provision that transfers a federal facility and surrounding
land to the Arizona Cotton Growers Association and Supima:SEC.
783. As soon as practicable after the Agricultural Research Service
Operations at the Western Cotton Research Laboratory located at 4135
East Broadway Road in Phoenix, Arizona, have ceased, the Secretary of
Agriculture shall convey, without consideration, to the Arizona Cotton Growers Association and Supima all right, title, and interest of the United States in and to the real property at that location, including improvements.
They've got a very deep investigative report.
Doug:
If I read this right, taxpayers have been funding research for the cotton growers and this is ending. If so, giving up the real estate, while not the best deal, may still be a net gain for the rest of us, in which case I'll take it.
If we're still footing the research bill elsewhere,though...
November 14, 2005, 2:01 pmPorkopolis:
Doug:
The second point you make ("If we're still footing the research bill elsewhere,though...") is EXACTLY the situation I've found.
Moreover, it was the original intent of the Agriculture Department to sell the facility and use the proceeds to build a new facility for the exact same research.
All the details are now at: http://porkopolis.blogspot.com/2005/11/federal-land-and-facility-giveaway-to.html
November 28, 2005, 8:33 am