October 2022 - 6

INDUSTRY NEWS
from americanhort to you
Good News ... Tax Changes Avoided
BY EVAN LEE, DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
In mid-August, the Senate passed a downsized yet still sprawling
reconciliation package, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act. Even casual
observers now know the deal, approved on a 50-50 partisan basis with a
tiebreaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris, includes $423 billion
in new spending on health care and climate change mitigation policies
central to the president's platform. To offset new spending, and further
provide deficit reduction, the agreement raises roughly $790 billion
in revenue, notably through a new 15% minimum tax on corporate
earnings above $1 billion, a 1% excise tax on corporate stock buybacks
and stepped-up tax enforcement by federal auditors.
Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), the final holdout vote, negotiated
late concessions from her democratic colleagues, eliminating taxes
targeted toward managers of private equity firms and their subsidiaries.
Gone, for instance, is language subjecting firms of any size to the
new 15% minimum tax that is part of a subsidiary portfolio with sum
revenue exceeding $1 billion. Owing to a technicality, the senator
claimed the subsidiary provision unintentionally increased taxes on
small- or medium-sized businesses incidentally owned by private equity
firms, citing concerns from Arizona firms, including a plant nursery.
News on the legislation's tax provisions brought sighs of relief from
taxpayer advocates, particularly farm groups. Remember proposals
to raise revenue by taxing plastics, capping like-kind exchanges or
increasing estate taxes? All those tax increases, among others that
would have affected the nursery and floriculture industry, were floated
to pay for Build Back Better over the past 18 months, but ultimately
dropped from the Senate agreement.
Numerous letters and corresponding grassroots efforts led by
AmericanHort and advocacy partners helped educate Congress on the
unintended harm to family-owned farms and small businesses of such
new taxes. Successful advocacy on these tax consequences avoided
reaffirms why collective advocacy through your associations, including
AmericanHort, is so crucial.
Our advocacy work influences legislation and regulation to help the
industry perform better, grow faster and prepare for the future. Needless
to say, our ultimate success depends on your support; as the adage
goes, " Complaining is free; everything else costs money! "
Contact AmericanHort with any questions about this bill or other
important issues that AmericanHort monitors on behalf of the
green industry by email at hello@americanhort.org or by phone at
614.487.1117.
NEW TOOL AIMS TO MITIGATE RISK AND IMPROVE
PLANT HEALTH
The Horticultural Research Institute, in partnership with the National
Plant Board and the Department of Agriculture (USDA), has launched a
new tool for nursery and greenhouse growers seeking to improve plant
production processes by identifying
hazards (operational areas where plants
could be contaminated or introduced to
plant pests). Understanding these critical
control points helps growers implement
measures to reduce or eliminate risks,
paving the way for healthier plants and
healthier businesses.
Healthy plants are integral to human
health and well-being, and to the
environment that sustains us. To ensure
that plants moving in the horticultural
trade are free of regulated invasive
pests that threaten agriculture and the
environment, greenhouses and nurseries are regulated by state and
federal authorities. A multi-year effort to modernize plant certification
has resulted in a new program known as Systems Approach to Nursery
Certification (SANC).
The SANC program is a voluntary, grower-driven, officially state-verified
plant health certification partnership that applies quality management
6 OCTOBER 2022 GPNMAG.COM
principles to the entire plant production process. SANC was developed
as a holistic approach to growing and certifying plants that satisfies
applicable state and federal plant health regulations.
SANC applies best practices at key points in the plant production
process to address identified risks. These practices are integrated into
a growing operation system, hence the
name: systems approach. The place to
start with system design is a greenhouse
or nursery-specific risk assessment that
examines what can go wrong where in the
plant production process.
" To make the process easier, the
Horticultural Research Institute teamed
up with the National Plant Board
and USDA to develop a web-based
risk assessment tool, " says Craig
Regelbrugge, AmericanHort executive
vice president of advocacy, research, and
industry relations.
Although the tool was designed to help growers more easily perform the
risk assessment required to participate in SANC, the tool is available, at
no cost, to any nursery or greenhouse seeking to improve their processes,
whether they choose to pursue SANC certification or not.
Growers may request free user access to begin a facility risk assessment
at www.hriresearch-sanc.org.
http://www.hriresearch-sanc.org http://www.GPNMAG.COM
October 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2022
