SPRINGFIELD — A bill passed by both chambers of the General Assembly and awaiting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature would clarify that it is legal for county-owned farmland to be leased to farmers under cash-rent lease agreements — a practice that has been a tradition for many Illinois counties to generate additional revenue but recently has come under scrutiny, including in Ford County.
Sponsored in the House by state Rep. Lance Yednock and in the Senate by Assistant Republican Leader Jason Plummer, R-Vandalia, with nine other Senators signing on as co-sponsors, House Bill 1076 was sent to the governor on June 22 after passing both Houses on May 25. The bill was filed on Jan. 4, coincidentally amid talks by the Ford County Board about the possibility of discontinuing the cash-rent leasing of its three farms as a result of its perceived unconstitutionality.
If signed by Pritzker, the bill would amend the Counties Code, effective immediately, to clarify that, upon a three-fourths vote of the full county board, a county may lease farmland it owns for up to five years at a time to either public or private entities for the “public purpose of financially supporting the operations of the government,” including via a cash-rent lease, crop-sharing arrangement or custom farming arrangement. The bill also adds requirements relating to the bid process for farmland leases and requires counties to not acquire farmland for the sole purpose of entering into farming arrangements.
In reaction to the bill’s passage, Ford County Board member Chase McCall of Gibson City said he feels the bill was needed to help clarify what had become a highly debated and confusing topic that dominated this past winter and spring’s county board meetings. Despite the board’s back-and-forth discussions, the board ultimately agreed via split votes to move forward with its long-standing practice of cash-rent leasing all three county farms, with the leases limited to only this current crop season.
Throughout, McCall supported the cash-rent lease option over various alternatives considered for the use of the land, including custom farming or enrolling the farmland into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program or Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Illinois Recreational Access Program and opening them to the public for outdoor recreation activities like hunting or bird-watching.
A minority of the board, meanwhile, was against cash-rent leasing over concerns it may violate the Illinois Constitution’s provision requiring government-owned land to be used for a public purpose. The issue had been raised by the Edgar County Watchdogs, eventually prompting the filing of the state legislation.
“What this bill does is it quells some of the concerns over some constitutionality issues that some folks had over the practice of cash-renting land owned by the government,” McCall said. “This legislation, I think, quells some of that heartburn. I’m pleased with it. … I think it’s good for counties that own farmground.”
McCall said he appreciates that the bill specifically mentions that both cash-rent leasing and custom farming would be allowed, noting that “counties can choose what’s best for them.” McCall said he also likes how the bill requires a super-majority vote of the board for any farmland lease agreement to be approved — rather than the previous requirement of a super majority for cash-rent leases and just a simple majority for custom farming — “so that it’s now on a level playing field.”
“I’m glad that they’re trying to make it clear what you can do,” added the Ford County Board’s chairman, Debbie Smith of Paxton. “Maybe there won’t be such debate down the road.”
Meanwhile, the Ford County Board’s vice chairman, Cindy Ihrke of rural Roberts, and board member Ann Ihrke of rural Buckley — who along with r Lesley King of Piper City voted against the cash-rent leasing of the county’s three farms this past spring — said they still believe the practice of cash-rent leasing county-owned farms violates the state constitution.
“We still believe that the constitution of Illinois says you can’t do it,” Ann Ihrke said, “because of the component of ‘public land use’ — the purpose of it. But people will be doing it, and our county will probably continue to do it, too. … I think the majority of the board will continue to (support) cash renting, because that’s what they want.”
Cindy Ihrke said she plans to bring ideas to the table to ensure Ford County’s compliance with the state constitution before the board decides this fall whether to continue to cash-rent lease the county’s farms beyond this year or instead pursue another use.
“That is still something we have to look at as a county and make sure we’re following, in my opinion, and I do have some ideas that will maybe help us be able to still do a cash-rent lease if that’s what the county board wants,” Ihrke said. “It could be as simple as having the farmer agree to leave a certain amount of crops out (of production) or plant a wildlife plot in order to have that ground opened up to hunting access through the DNR program. So there are some things we need to start looking at and discussing in order to start sticking with the whole law, not just one part of it.”
Yednock, who serves as vice chairman of the House Agriculture & Conservation Committee, filed House Bill 1076 after a similar bill was filed last year by Assistant Republican Leader Avery Bourne, R-Litchfield, amid her unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor, only to be stalled in the Senate.
The legislation stemmed from debate in Shelby County over the constitutionality of the cash-rent leasing of its farmland. Shelby County had leased the land for decades before turning to custom farming last year amid concerns raised by the Edgar County Watchdogs, a government watchdog group that claimed the practice of cash-rent leasing government land was unconstitutional.
“I think the position was being taken by the Edgar County Watchdogs that this is somehow unconstitutional,” Yednock said, “and they were going around kind of telling people that they’re likely to be sued. … I did see that my own county could be affected by what was going on. I talked to a few of my county board members (in my home county), and they didn’t want to really have to get rid of their county farmland; they wanted to keep their lease agreement.”
State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, was the bill’s main opponent, Yednock said. In negotiating terms of the legislation with Halbrook and other opponents, Yednock agreed to have the bill amended to limit the terms of a farmland lease to no more than five years — rather than up to 99 years as stated in the original bill — and to state that custom farming, the current practice in Shelby County, is specified as a permitted use.
Under custom farming, the county, rather than the farmer, is responsible for buying all inputs and hires a farmer just to work the land. Under cash-rent lease agreements, the farmer handles the entire operation while paying a yearly per-acre rental fee to the county.
In February, Kirk Allen and John Kraft, co-founders of the Edgar County Watchdogs, addressed the Ford County Board with their concerns over the constitutionality of cash-rent leases for county farmland.
“If it’s leased to a private farmer … it benefits the farmer,” Allen told the board. “That’s a sole beneficiary, not the general public at large.”
However, Ford County State’s Attorney Andrew Killian said in response that an argument could be made that cash-rent leasing of county-owned farmland does provide public benefit.
“It’s the engine of small-county industry and economics,” Killian noted. “It helps prevent the spread of obnoxious weeds. It helps control invasive pests. Good farming practices conserve soil, and they protect our waterways from runoff.”
Yednock said it is important to realize that counties have relied for decades on the revenue they receive from cash-rent leases for their farmland. Yednock also noted that no lawsuit has ever been filed in Illinois over the practice’s constitutionality, meaning no judge has ever issued a ruling on the issue. While opinions have been issued by the state attorney general’s office indicating that publicly owned property, in general, must only be leased for a “public purpose,” Yednock noted that those opinions did not address the specific topic of cash-rent farm leases and that those opinions were not binding and came several decades ago and not from a judge.
“Our current attorney general (Kwame Raoul) said he would stay neutral (on the issue) unless it goes to court,” Yednock added.
Both state lawmakers representing Ford County — state Rep. Jason Bunting, R-Emington, and state Sen. Tom Bennett, R-Gibson City — supported House Bill 1076.
Bunting, who was a member of the Livingston County Board prior to his appointment to the House in January, said Livingston County, like Ford County, leases county-owned farmland under cash-rent agreements. Bunting said rural counties rely on the additional revenue, which benefits their residents, too, by keeping their tax rates lower than they would be otherwise.
“I think the constituents of the county also benefit from the land that’s leased out,” Bunting said, “because the money from the cash rent goes into the general fund and helps provide for the counties. I am all for any way we can run the government like a business, to where we make money and in turn lower our constituents’ taxes in doing so.”
Said Bennett: “Many counties around the state — not just Ford County — have been doing this for years, and they haven’t had a problem or issue. … To codify that what’s already being done (is allowed), that should help take away any concerns or issues. Hopefully this helps everybody realize, ‘It’s OK, we can do that,’ … and hopefully they can continue doing what they’re doing and help provide funds for their budgets.”
Besides Ford County, at least 24 counties in the state currently cash-rent or lease their farmland, including Brown, Clark, Clinton, DeKalb, Fayette, Greene, Henry, Iroquois, LaSalle, Livingston, Logan, Macoupin, McDonough, Mercer, Montgomery, Moultrie, Pike, Randolph, Rock Island, Schuyler, Shelby, Tazewell, Warren and Whiteside.
House Bill 1076 received bipartisan support in both chambers. Joining Plummer as Senate co-sponsors of House Bill 1076 were one Democrat, Patrick Joyce, D-Kankakee, and eight Republicans: Republican Caucus Chair Neil Anderson, R-Aledo; Assistant Republican Leader Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro; Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport; Erica Harriss, R-Edwardsville; Assistant Republican Steve McClure, R-Litchfield; Dave Syverson, R-Cherry Valley; Republican Caucus Whip Sally Turner, R-Lincoln; and Craig Wilcox, R-Woodstock.
The post Bill awaiting governor’s signature clarifies that counties can lease their farmland for profit first appeared on Ford County Chronicle.
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July 6, 2023 at 01:59PM
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