Low-interest loans will help restore farms

THE ISSUE Voters are being asked to approve a state constitutional amendment offering low-interest loans to farmers.

A YEAR after accelerating designation of "important agricultural lands," the Legislature approved a state constitutional amendment allowing low-interest loans aimed at improving enterprises on important agricultural land. The amendment has bipartisan support and should be ratified by voters on Nov. 7.

A 1978 constitutional amendment called on the state to identify important farmland, but Gov. Linda Lingle said "some interest groups" kept the job from being done. At her urging, the Legislature last year passed landmark legislation aimed at identifying and setting aside land for agricultural use.

The state's financial support is needed to revitalize the agricultural sector, and the Legislature approved a package of bills in this year's session. Those include measures helping landowners subdivide farmland so small, family-farm operations can afford long-term leases, improving invasive species control and creating an irrigation repair and maintenance fund.

A key part of the package would provide low-interest loans to farmers under a constitutional provision that now uses revenue bonds for a variety of special purposes, such as financing industrial enterprises and preschool education. A constitutional amendment on this year's ballot would add enterprises on important agricultural lands to those special purposes.

Much of the money would be spent on irrigation systems and roads for sugar cane and pineapple fields that were abandoned years ago. Those fields need to be converted into productive diversified agriculture, and front-end financing is needed to restore them.

Sponsors of the amendment point out that these are not handouts but bonds purchased by private investors and offered as loans that recipients are pledged to repay. Projects using the loans must be reviewed by the Legislature before being approved.