NY Budget Cuts Would Hurt Farms and Consumers

ALBANY — It seems everyone is short on cash these days, including state governments. To make up the gap in the Empire State's proposed 2010-11 budget, Gov. David Paterson has proposed axing funding to research projects that can impact agriculture.

Thomas N. Sleight, executive director of New York Farm Viability Institute in Syracuse, said that the proposed cuts would eliminate 74 ag projects. The current budget stalemate has already frozen all 105 research projects.

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NY Budget Cuts Would Hurt Farms and Consumers

NY Farm Bureau to Detail Opposition to Wood Boiler Regulations

FINGER LAKES -- The New York Farm Bureau is set to detail its opposition to proposed new state regulations on outdoor wood boilers.

State environmental officials want to put limits on how and when the boilers are used and require some equipment changes in order to reduce air pollution and plumes of smoke that can be a nuisance.

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NYFB Details Opposition to Wood Boiler Regulations

Farm and Business Groups Oppose State Borrowing Plan

Albany, NY -- Farm groups and business advocacy leaders this week urged state legislators to reject a possible plan to borrow millions to help fund operating expenses as a means to close New York's massive budget deficit. "Increasing state borrowing to cover New York's operating expenses is like taking out a cash advance on one credit card to pay off another," said Dean Norton, Farm Bureau president.

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Farm and Business Groups Oppose State Borrowing Plan

Caves Closed in Hope of Helping Bats

Visitors explore a cave at Maquoketa Caves in Iowa

A fungus that has decimated hibernating bats in the Northeast is flitting across the country and prompting state and federal agencies to close caves to prevent further spread of the disease by humans trekking through them for recreation.

More than a million bats have died since 2006 when the disease, known as white nose syndrome, was first documented in Upstate New York. Now it has spread around the Northeast and has been detected as far south as Virginia and as far west as Missouri.

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Caves Closed in Hope of Helping Bats