SLIPPERY ROCK — The Butler County Farm Bureau held a forum during which legislation regarding agriculture was discussed Friday at Stuchal Farms.

Primary topics included migrant workers, the possibility of a tax reassessment in Butler County, consistency of local income tax and state income tax reporting, and farmers with gas wells.

Butler County Farm Bureau President Larry Vol spoke about the H2A Visa program, which is open to nationals of countries designated by the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.

Vol said that under the program, farmers have been required to hire any migrant workers who apply for jobs, rather than specifically workers who are well-suited for the task of farming.

Vol said this has led to some workers leaving their jobs whenever they want, or not doing their jobs as they should.

Vol said the bureau is in support of being able to hire workers who are fit to farm.

“We’re not taking jobs away from Americans,” he said. “We’re giving jobs to people that want to do the work. We want legal workers, and we’re not afraid to go through the system. But we want to be able to get who we want and not just who applies for the job.”

Bureau government relations director, Sid Schrever, as well as several farmers in attendance, were concerned with a potential tax reassessment of Butler County.

“Controlling costs on your job is an everyday thing,” Schrever said to the Butler County Commissioners, who were in attendance. “It has to be better.”

Commissioner Kim Guyer, said that there were no plans for a tax reassessment, but as one had not be done since 1969, they needed to be prepared for one.

Commissioner Leslie Osche agreed.

“Being prepared is not the same as saying it’s something we aggressively want to do,” she said.

Schrever spoke about inconsistencies regarding local and state income tax reporting.

He said that rules governing when the filing of local income tax returns and payments are due in comparison to state income tax returns and payments have created problems for farmers.

“We’d like to align those (local estimates) with state and federal estimates, and align their deadlines and payments to be due the same time as state and federal deadlines,” Schrever said. “We’d also like to have estimates of income due in the quarter instead of exact income, especially for those who have indefinite income.”

The bureau stated in a release that it supported Senate Bill 356 for providing “commonsense uniformity to address this problem.” The bill was passed.

Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-21st, voted for the bill.

“It’s a simple thing,” he said. “We should make it easier. Nobody wants to pay taxes. At the very least it should be simple to file.”

Schrever also spoke of Pennsylvania farmers with gas wells on their properties not receiving the state-mandated rate of 12.5 percent in royalties for gas extraction because of drastic deductions taken by some gas-well companies. The companies are claiming deductions from royalty payments for the costs associated with the capture and transmission of gas from the wells.

The bureau is in support of House Bill 1391, which would prohibit companies from assessing deductions that would drop royalty payments under 12.5 percent of the value of the gas extracted.

Stuchal Farms is owned by Cory and Nikole Stuchal. They have owned it since 2002. Their primary crop is corn, but they also harvest soy beans.