Flooded farmers gain support from House committee

COLUMBIA, SC With torrential rains falling last October, Jeremy Cannon watched helplessly as water flooded the fields of cotton, tobacco and soybeans he had tended carefully through the summer.

His Clarendon County farm was washing away — and so were the profits he needed to make ends meet. When the rain finally stopped, there wasn’t much left to harvest. Cannon figures he lost nearly $400,000, a staggering amount that has made it hard to pay off farm loans and prepare for the 2016 planting season.

“We need help to save our farms and save our communities,’’ Cannon told legislators Thursday.

Cannon, 34, is one of thousands of farmers across South Carolina who could receive benefits under a farm-aid plan a House budget panel approved Thursday. The House Ways and Means subcommittee agreed to establish a fund for farmers who need assistance in recovering from a flood that hit while many of them prepared to harvest crops.

The amount and source of money for the fund have not been finalized, and the bill would need approval from the House and Senate at a time when the state is grappling with other costs, such as road repair and dam reconstruction, that resulted from the Oct. 4 flood.

Gov. Nikki Haley, who could veto the bill, also has declined to seek some federal money for farmers, saying she didn’t want to single out one industry over another. She has said farms already are subsidized by the government in ways other businesses are not.

But boosters of a state fund said it’s worthwhile because farmers put food on the table. Much of the money could come from a more than $80 million state savings account established for unexpected needs, said Rep. Brian White, an Anderson Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee.

“We are trying to give them a hand up,’’ White said, noting many farmers are having trouble repaying loans they used to plant crops last year. Unless they can pay off those loans, many can’t borrow more money to put crops in the ground this spring.

The fall flood caused an estimated $400 million in losses for South Carolina farmers. Testimony lawmakers heard Thursday indicated crop insurance wasn’t adequate to defray unusually heavy losses.

The bill says the state would provide up to 20 percent of the money lost by each farmer who can verify his or her crop losses as a result of the flood. The bill caps the amount of the grants at $100,000 per farmer per disaster. A seven-member board would oversee the program.

Cannon and Orangeburg County farmer Dean Hutto, 27, said they would appreciate any help. Hutto said he also weathered a drought last summer, only to see flooding damage his mature crops at harvest time. Among the crops Hutto farms are peanuts, corn, cotton and wheat.

“We carried these things all the way to harvest,’’ Hutto said, but “then the flood came. I was set to start harvesting my peanuts the Monday before the flood. If you remember back, it rained all week — then that weekend at my house in Holly Hill, we had 18 to 22 inches of rain. That flood really was a dagger in the heart.’’

Rep. Kenny Bingham, R-Lexington, was the only member of the four-person subcommittee not to vote to establish the fund. Bingham abstained, suggesting farmers might be getting an advantage over others who also suffered.

“We’ve got to be careful that, if we provide assistance and help, that whatever assistance and help we do, we do it fairly and uniformly for everybody,’’ Bingham said. “There is a lot of loss and devastation as a result of this storm.’’

White said the state farm fund is needed, even if Haley changed her mind and agreed to seek federal money. Farmers represent a unique part of South Carolina’s economy, he said. They provide food and clothing to the public, yet face risks every year that are heavily dependent on the weather, he said. South Carolina has about 25,000 farms.

This story was originally published January 28, 2016 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Flooded farmers gain support from House committee."