Amend the bill, as and if amended, by striking all after the enacting words and inserting:
/ SECTION 1. The General Assembly finds that:
(1) The historic flood
of October 2015 caused unprecedented damage to the State and its
people, with particular devastating statewide impacts on South
Carolina farmers and the state's agriculture industry.
(2) The State has over
twenty-five thousand farms across nearly five million acres,
which generate billions of dollars annually and represents a
vital component to a healthy state economy.
(3) The total loss of
crops as a result of the flooding is estimated at nearly four
hundred million dollars and the estimated federal crop insurance
payments will only cover about one-third of the total crop
loss.
(4) The federal crop
insurance program established in 2014 is an inadequate method of
indemnification as compared to traditional forms of insurance
and is not sufficient to aid farmers with substantial losses due
to catastrophic events of nature.
(5) The State of South
Carolina has a significant public interest to prevent the
economic collapse of many of the state's farms which could cause
a severe disruption in the state's economy and food supply
chain.
SECTION 2. Chapter 1, Title 46 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
"Section 46-1-160.
(A)(1) There is created the 'South
Carolina Farm Aid Fund'. This fund is separate and distinct
from the general fund of the State and all other funds. Earnings
on this fund must be credited to it and any balance in this fund
at the end of a fiscal year carries forward in the fund in the
succeeding fiscal year. Revenues credited to this fund in a
fiscal year must be used to operate a grant program that
provides financial assistance to farmers.
(2)
To be eligible for a grant, the person must have:
(a)
experienced a verifiable loss of agricultural commodities
of at least forty percent as a result of a natural disaster,
excluding drought, for which:
(i)
the Governor declares a state of emergency in the State;
and
(ii)
the United States Secretary of Agriculture has issued a
Secretarial Disaster Declaration for the county in which the
farm is located;
(b)
a farm number issued by the Farm Service Agency; and
(c)
signed an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, certifying
that each fact of the loss presented by the person is accurate.
(B)(1) There is created
the Farm Aid Board. The board is composed of the following
members:
(a)
the Commissioner of Agriculture, ex officio, or his
designee, who shall serve as chairman;
(b)
one member representing South Carolina Farm Bureau
Federation appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee;
(c)
one member representing a Farm Credit Association
appointed by the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee;
(d)
one member of the crop insurance industry appointed by the
Chairman of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources
Committee;
(e)
one agricultural commodities producer appointed by the
Chairman of the House Agriculture, Natural Resources and
Environmental Affairs Committee;
(f)
the Vice President for Public Service and Agriculture of
Clemson Public Service Activities, or his designee; and
(g)
the Vice President for Land Grant Services of South
Carolina State Public Service Activities, or his designee.
(2)(a)
Within twenty days of the effective date of this section,
the board shall hold its initial meeting to adopt an application
process by which a person with a loss resulting from the
flooding in October 2015, may apply for a grant. A person shall
apply not later than forty-five days after the initial meeting
of the board. The initial deposit of monies into the fund only
may be used for such claims.
(b)
For any other loss, the board shall set forth the process
and application process by which a person may apply for
grants.
(3)(a)
Each grant awarded by the board must equal twenty percent
of the person's verifiable loss of agricultural commodities.
However, a person, including any grant made to a related person,
may not receive grants aggregating more than one hundred
thousand dollars with respect to any single major disaster.
Also, a person, including any grant made to a related person,
may not receive grants that when combined with losses covered by
insurance, exceed one hundred percent of the actual loss. If a
grant is made to a related person, the amount to be included in
the limits set by this section must be the amount of the grant
multiplied by the person's ownership interest in the related
person. However, a person who shares an ownership interest with
another person or entity may not be refused a grant solely
because the other person or related person has otherwise
received the maximum grant amount, but in this case, the
person's grant amount is limited by the person's ownership
interest.
(b)
If the total amount of grants allowed pursuant to subitem
(a) for a single major disaster exceeds the monies in the fund,
then each person's grant must be reduced proportionately.
(4)
To determine loss, the board:
(a)
must measure the person's cumulative total loss of all
affected agricultural commodities for the calendar year in which
the eligible loss occurred against the person's expected
production of all agricultural commodities affected by a
qualifying natural disaster in the same year;
(b)
shall use the person's applicable actual production
history yield, as determined by the Federal Crop Insurance
Corporation, to determine loss for insured agricultural
commodities. In determining loss for uninsured agricultural
commodities, the board shall use the most recent year's county
price and county yield, as applicable, as determined by the
National Agriculture Statistics Service, United States
Department of Agriculture; and
(c)
may require any documentation or proof it considers
necessary to efficiently administer the grant program, including
the ownership structure of each entity and the social security
numbers of each owner. Minimally, in order to verify loss, the
board shall require the submission of dated, signed, and
continuous records. These records may include, but are not
limited to, commercial receipts, settlement sheets, warehouse
ledger sheets, pick records, load summaries, contemporaneous
measurements, truck scale tickets, contemporaneous diaries,
appraisals, ledgers of income, income statements of deposit
slips, cash register tape, invoices for custom harvesting,
u-pick records, and insurance documents.
(C) Grant awards must
be used for agricultural production expenses and losses due to
the declared disaster but does not include the purchase of new
equipment or the paying down of debt. The board shall require
any documentation it determines necessary to verify the
appropriate use of grant awards, including receipts.
(D) If the board
determines that a person who received a grant provided
inaccurate information, then the person shall refund the entire
amount of the grant. If the board determines that a person who
received a grant used the funds for ineligible expenses, then
the person must refund the amount of the ineligible expenses.
If the person does not refund the appropriate amount, the
Department of Revenue shall utilize the provisions of the Setoff
Debt Collection Act to collect the money from the person.
(E) From the 2014-2015
Contingency Reserve Fund, there is appropriated $40,000,000 to
the South Carolina Farm Aid Fund. Any funds from this
appropriation remaining in the fund on June 30, 2017, shall
lapse to the general fund.
(F) The board may
accept private funds, grants, and property to be used to make
financial awards from the grant program.
(G) Staffing for the
board must be provided by the staff of the Department of
Agriculture.
(H) For purposes of
this section:
(1)
'Agricultural commodities' means wheat, cotton, flax,
corn, dry beans, oats, barley, rye, tobacco, rice, peanuts,
soybeans, sugar beets, sugar cane, tomatoes, grain sorghum,
sunflowers, raisins, oranges, sweet corn, dry peas, freezing and
canning peas, forage, apples, grapes, potatoes, timber and
forests, nursery crops, citrus, and other fruits and vegetables,
nuts, tame hay, native grass, aquacultural species including,
but not limited to, any species of finfish, mollusk, crustacean,
or other aquatic invertebrate, amphibian, reptile, or aquatic
plant propagated or reared in a controlled or selected
environment, excluding stored grain.
(2)
'Person' means any individual, trust, estate, partnership,
receiver, association, company, limited liability company,
corporation, or other entity or group.
(3)
'Related person' means any person, joint venture, or
entity that has a direct or indirect ownership interest of a
person or legal entity."
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor and applies to any loss created by a disaster after September 2015. /
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend title to conform.