WVFA eNews Weekly

U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) recently made the following statement:
"While the fiscal cliff agreement finally provided some much-needed certainty when it comes to estate planning, I have long-supported, and would still like to see, the full repeal of the death tax. I think it is important for Congress to go on record – especially all the new Members who have been elected in recent years – to show the bipartisan support for killing this tax, which forces the sale of family farms and small businesses. Even with the significant improvements we were able to get in the fiscal cliff deal, the estate tax forces Americans to engage in complex and costly planning in order to ensure future generations can continue operations. We need to keep the drumbeat going until we reach the day when full repeal is possible and a vote in the House is one way to do that. The comprehensive tax reform draft legislation that I released shows that with reform, a growing economy can accommodate even better tax policy, such as a repeal of the death tax, without adding to the federal deficit.

Then, Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX) made this statement:
I appreciate Chairman Dave Camp’s willingness to work with us to secure a floor vote on the Death Tax (which hasn’t occurred in nearly a decade). Our goal – and we are determined to achieve it – is to bury the Death Tax once and for all. That will grow the economy and create even stronger tax revenues. Even setting aside the immorality of the government swooping in upon your death to take more than a third of the nest egg you’ve worked a life-time to build, by every Washington policy measure it’s a miserable failure. It fails to generate significant revenue, boost the economy or reduce income inequality. It does, however, succeed in hindering entrepreneurial activity and breaking up family farms and businesses. Many of them hurt in the future by this tax will be minority and women-owned businesses building wealth for the first time.

Visit https://www.naylornetwork.com/wvf-nwl/articles/?aid=273811&issueID=40912 to view the full article online.

On July 10, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative's (SFI) West Virginia State Implementation Committee (SIC) met to conduct its regular quarterly meeting. This is the first regular meeting of the group since the Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the SIC and the West Virginia Forestry Association to initiate a SFI Program conducted by the WVFA as an organization, rather than by a designated individual WVFA staffer.

The general consensus of the SIC was that WVFA was in-line for an 'at-a-boy!' for its work thus far and a determination was made that the Program is "on track," after its first few months. Later, after synchronizing its decision with the WVFA Board of Directors, the SIC confirmed their unanimous decision not to duplicate existing efforts by the WV Division of Forestry by continuing to maintain a separate loggers' database. It was recommended that the WVFA website provide a link to the WVDOF site, so certified loggers can be verified.

Otherwise, internally, WVFA was asked to re-format the annual budget to reflect the change in funding structure. In a final decision, Frank Stewart was asked to attend the the 2014 North American annual meeting of SFI, Inc. in Montreal this September.

Visit https://www.naylornetwork.com/wvf-nwl/articles/?aid=276386&issueID=40912 to view the full article online.

Steve Antoline, of Nicholas County, was recognized as the 2014 West Virginia Tree Farmer of the Year during the awards luncheon at the recent WVFA Annual Meeting. Rick Persinger, with MeadWestvaco, nominated Antoline for this award and also received a certificate of recognition.

Visit https://www.naylornetwork.com/wvf-nwl/articles/?aid=276380&issueID=40912 to view the full article online.