Good afternoon. I call this meeting of the Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee to order. Let the record reflect
It is 1.30 p.m. On Tuesday February 10th
2026 present today are senator Dunbar senator gray Jackson senator. Yeah myself senator Merrick
This afternoon our agenda includes Senate bill 192 evacuation designation levels
Senate Bill 191 transfer of railroad land to Whittier and Senate build 200 farm and agricultural land assessments first up
We are holding our second hearing on Senate Bill 192,
Evacuation Designation Levels by Senator Bjorkman.
We last heard this introduction of this bill,
and we took public testimony on May 15th of last year.
Senator, welcome to Community and Regional Affairs.
If you'd like to join us at the table,
place yourself on the record,
and briefly reintroduce your bill.
Thank you very much, Chair, Merrick, Vice Chair Dunbar, and members of the esteemed community and regional affairs committee.
For the record, my name is Senator Jesse Bjorkman and I represent the northern and central portions of The Keeneye Peninsula.
This bill stems from emergency managers from across the state getting together and
seeking to create a statewide uniform solution about emergency communication on evacuation.
in an emergency and when an evacuation is needed.
Brenda Alberg from the Kena Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management
is on the phone to answer your questions about this bill.
It provides a ready set go designation corresponding to the
colors of a stoplight, green for ready, yellow for set,
This plan requires that it be used in plans developed for emergency planning districts established under AS-26-23-073.
The CS, before you add the requirement to use Ready Set Go framework to plans
developed by political subdivisions under the same similar section 26-23060.
That is a brief recap of the bill.
Adam Chair.
Committee members have a proposed committee substitute at the request of the sponsor mr. Vice chair. Do you have emotion?
Yes, madam chair, I move to adopt the proposed Committee substitute for Senate bill 192 work draft 34 backslash
Lima Sierra
086 3 back slash India as our working document. I'll object for discussion
Is miss a she going to take this or use interview?
Review the changes
Thank You madam chair for the record. I'm Laura Ashay staff to senator Jesse Bjorkman
And what the CS does is it simply adds the requirement to use the ready-set go methodology
under another section of plans that
Are drafted under state law and those would be plans that are drafted by political subdivisions that
are defined under AS26.23.060.
There's just an oversight in the initial drafting of the bill that that section of statute was missed.
Thank you.
Any questions or discussion?
Seeing none, I will remove my objection.
Is there a further objection?
Seeing None, this committee substitute for Senate Bill 192 is adopted.
Seeing none, Mr. Vice Chair, do you have a motion?
Yes.
Madam Chair I move Senate Bill 192, work draft 34-Lima Sierra 0863, backslash India from
committee with individual recommendations and accompanying zero fiscal note and authorized
legislative legal services to make conforming changes.
Thank you.
Is there an objection?
Hearing none Senate bill 182 is moved from committee.
We'll take a brief.
We'll call the committee back to order at 1.36 PM.
Our next bill is Senate Bill 191, transfer of railroad land to Whittier by Senator Giesle.
This is our first hearing on the bill.
Welcome for her staff, Paige Brown, the senator will be joining us shortly.
If you would place yourself on their record and introduce your bill, thank you for being here.
Thank you, Madam Chair, for the record, Page Brown.
Staff to Senator Geesele?
So, Senator Giesel represents House Districts 9 and 10, which is Senate District E, and
that expands all the way from the Anchorage Hillside, all
the until Whittier, including Gerdwood, Indian, Bird Valley.
And so, this bill kind of stems from that.
Whiddier is a small city through the longest combined vehicle railroad tunnel in North
During World War II, the Army constructed a military facility
with a port and railroad in the spot that would eventually become
Whittier.
Whattier has a small population of 272 people that sees thousands
of tourists in summer from cruise ships and the train.
It's a popular location for outdoor recreation like fishing, hiking, kayaking.
The railroad corporation owns 85% of Whittier's
developable land in the downtown waterfront
and aviation areas.
This limits the city's ability to develop housing,
expand harbor services, or improve the infrastructure.
Whitter's comprehensive plan has identified
these five parcels shown on the slide here
as being critical for long-term community needs.
What SB 191 does is it authorizes the land exchange between the railroad and Whittier?
Which is under Alaska statute requires legislative approval the landing question
well is
The three lots on the right side downtown area of this map
including two lots
on The left side towards the
Harbor area
The deal that is currently being proposed would only include the three that are in the downtown area
But the two may be up for a further deal down the road with
Whittier in The railroad and so that's what this bill does it just authorizes that transfer of land
From the railroad to the city of Whitty
Thank you questions from the committee senator yet. Oh, yeah, thank you through the chair
By transfer just for folks that are at home watching that may be a little bit confused
I think there is still an acquisition happening to right the city of Whittier is agreeing to pay
An amount of money for some of those property to I believe right through the chair. That is correct
They are buying this land for the deal to go through
There just has to be in a legislative approval for any transfer or selling of any land
I just wanted to get better out on the record there was 4.7 million I believed right
If I remember correctly, it's okay.
So, while I'll just say this, I think this is fantastic legislation.
The more opportunities that we as a state can take to return lands back to local communities,
local districts, local cities, municipalities, the better.
They came to what seems to me like a very fair agreement on this.
And I'm excited for them and so yeah, let the sponsor know a great job.
Thank you.
Senator, great Jackson.
Thank You Madam Chair, thank you for your presentation and bringing this forward.
I think it is good also.
But my question is, where's the funding source coming from to pay for this?
ThankYou Madem Chair.
Through the chair, the Funding source comes from the City of Whittier.
We do have the city manager of whittiers available for questions.
who might have more information about that.
If I can follow up, Madam Chair.
She will be up for invited testimony more.
Okay.
Invited testimony.
Can I follow-up on my question?
Absolutely.
Thank you, madam chair.
I know that the money's going to come from the city of Whittier, but my
question is kind of how are they going
to pay for this?
Thank
you.
Thank You, Madame Chair?
Thank
You.
Further questions for Ms. Brown?
Okay, seeing none we have two invited testifiers today. The first is Megan Clemens director of external affairs for the Alaska Railroad
Welcome to the committee today if you could place yourself on the record and proceed with your testimony
All right, good afternoon chair Merrick and committee members for The Record my name is Meghan Clemons and
I am the external Affairs Director for? The Alaska railroad corporation
And thank you for the opportunity to speak today to express the Alaska Railroad support for Senate Bill 191 which as we just heard would authorize the railroad to sell identified parcels of land to the city of Whittier.
I want to start by noting that selling land is not something that the Railroad takes lightly.
So, as you know, the process to sell railroad land requires not only legislative authorization,
but also railroad board approval.
And the statutes are clear that our board is obligated to find that the land in question
is not necessary for railroad purposes, and that a sale would serve the best interest
of the state as we remain focused on our mandate to maintain Alaska's rail network and provide
safe and reliable transportation for goods and passengers.
this transaction, and this authorization you're considering today, that over the last two years,
the railroad and the city have been engaged in ongoing discussion and negotiation in pursuit
of a mutually beneficial land sale.
Through this process, the scope of the proposed sale has evolved and refined, culminating in
a proposal offered by the Railroad at our board's direction to sell three parcels of land in
statutes. Following this proposal, we were pleased to receive a conditional letter of
intent from the city in late January and just last week the Alaska Railroad Board of Directors
passed a resolution approving the sale of areas of interest 1, 2, and 3 as defined under
So, as I mentioned, this discussion has evolved over the last year and has been noted.
The legislation includes authorization to sell two additional parcels, and those would be the parcels noted as areas of interest four and five.
And I do just want to clarify that completing the sale of parcels one, two,
and three would, in no way, preclude revisiting parcels four
and 5 for a potential sale to the city of Whittier in the future.
to the city would only help to expedite that process,
should we receive that guidance from our board.
So with that, thank you again for the opportunity
to speak today in support of this legislation.
It's our hope that this land sale is responsive
to needs of the community and the railroad,
helps the City realize its goals
for local growth and prosperity,
and sets the stage for an ongoing productive relationship
between the the county and railroad in the years to come.
Thank you.
Seeing none. Thank you for being here. Okay, thank you
Next is Jackie wild. She's the city manager for the City of Whittier
Welcome to the committee if you'd like to place yourself on the record and begin your testimony
Thank You chair, American committee. My name is Jackie wild and the Citi manager, for The City Of Whitty
I'm gonna give you a little bit of background on how we've got to hit this point. So
As you look at this map that is in front of you, there is a very large orange outline and that
outline was originally the master lease that was entered into in 1998, that master
lease, the lands were given to the railroad by the state and then the city entered
into the Master Lease in 98 and we pay 40% of all gross revenues for those lands.
from 1998 to current date.
For many, many years,
the city has tried to negotiate and get out of the master lease
as the, you know, the City is very well
and saying that it was a failed experiment.
And I think we all feel like that was
a very failed experiments.
But at the same time, we do recognize and have recognized
over the last couple of years that
There's always going to be a railroad, there's
always gonna be state of Alaska, and there
is always the city of Whittier.
How do we make sure that we move forward in a
very economical development stage as well as
participating and working together with our
stakeholders?
Two years ago, we sat down with the railroad and said, what does this look like?
How do we get where we are sitting in a room together instead of against each other and
that benefits everyone and we came to this which are these five lots and
over the two years we have
it originally was called the land transfer just so you know and so we did
go from that to being a purchase and the first phase of this purchase
is Lots AOI-1, AOA-2, and AAOA3 which is in the harbor and core area of Whittier.
The second phase is hopefully and possibly AOOI 4 and 5
go forward for the community.
I can't express how important this is,
not only for us, but for this state and the railroad.
If you just look at just AOI-2 and AOA-3,
AOOI3 is the harbor front.
We have already entered into
and have the final phases of a draft.
Waterfront economic development plan that the city has paid for and is looking at moving forward on
AOI 2 is a huge open area in which we could add the
one of the only areas we could add additional housing.
For those that have never been to Whittier,
90% of us live in one building and 10% live
in another.
So there's not a lot of single family housing,
you know, we're looking at ways to be able to help
with the growth that is coming with
the fact that we have two new,
we a cruise ship terminal, a new one.
So now we two different cruise line agencies
that operate out of Whittyier.
a year, 200,000 of them are cruise ship related, the other 500,00 are just tourists coming through
the tunnel.
question, this is a multi-tiered funding mechanism for the city.
We have really done our due diligence.
We know we would not have entered into a letter of intent if we did not
have a way to pay for it.
We are working on that every day.
But this passing and going to the legislature just gives the opportunity for
a brighter future for everyone.
Thank you.
Senator Great Jackson.
Thank you, Madam Chair, thank you for your presentation, and also thank for the meeting that we had, I think it was last week.
But the reason why I asked the question again was because I thought it would be important for
the public to understand how Whittier was going to pay for this purchase, so thank-you.
Thank-ya, madam chair.
Thank You, Senator Gray-Jackson.
Further questions for Ms. Wilde?
Seeing none, Thankyou for being here.
I'd like the record to reflect at 147 PM, we were joined by Senator Olsen.
Is there any committee discussion on Senate Bill 191, 192, pardon me?
No, I don't want 92, we're on 191.
Okay, seeing none we will set this bill aside for further consideration.
Our final bill today is Senate bill 200, Farm and Agricultural Land Assessments by Senator Bjorkman.
Senator, if you and your staff, Laura Ashe, would like to come forward and introduce your bill.
Thank you again, Chair Merrick, Vice Chair Dunbar, and members of the esteemed Community and Regional Affairs Committee.
For the record, my name is Senator Jesse Bjorkman,
and I represent the northern and central portions of The Kenai Peninsula.
I am thankful that you all have chosen to hear Senate Bill 200 today.
Alaska continues to face persistent food insecurity,
and our dependence on imported food leaves us vulnerable.
The vast majority of what we eat arrives from outside.
Much of it is routed through the port of Seattle and then goes through
the Badan Young Port of Alaska.
Any disruption to these critical hubs could have immediate
and severe consequences for our families across the state.
Strengthening Alaska's own agricultural capacity should not be optional.
It is essential to building a resilient food system that can withstand
State law recognizes the importance of keeping agricultural land in production by allowing
farms to be assessed at a farm use rate for property taxes.
This policy helps ensure that farmland remains farmland, rather than being sold or converted
for more profitable use.
In 2024, the legislature updated some of these statutes in response to direct feedback from
farmers and the recommendations from the 2023 Alaska Food Strategy Task Force.
Those changes streamline the application process and ensure that essential farm structures, such as barns, are included in that farm use assessment.
However, an unattended consequence of those revisions excluded farms operating as an S corporation from qualifying for that agricultural tax rate.
S corporations do not file for a schedule F.
That's why S corporas need to be included in this bill.
Senate Bill 200 corrects this oversight by allowing them to submit the equivalent information to local assessors,
ensuring they are treated fairly and consistently with other agricultural operations.
Current statutes also limit the farm use assessment to farms producing food for people or for food producing livestock.
While this reflects an urgent need to increase our in-state food production, it does not
fully reflect Alaska's agricultural economy.
Feedback from farmers and agricultural organizations has made it clear that Alaska s agricultural
sector is interconnected and mutually supportive.
Operations such as hay farms that feed horses and peony farms also contribute to the stability
They help sustain the suppliers, service providers, and infrastructure that food-producing farms rely on.
If we want to ask those food producers to succeed, we must support the broader agricultural ecosystem that makes their work possible.
Senate Bill 200 updates the statutes to reflect this reality and ensures that all legitimate agricultural operations,
including those, that support food production and directly are eligible for the farm use tax assessment.
We have representatives from the Alaska Farm Bureau, the Alaskia Farm Land Trust, two P&E farmers.
They're all here or online to speak directly to the importance of this legislation.
We are also prepared to walk the committee through a sectional analysis at the Chair's discretion.
No, thank you.
Do we have any questions for the bill sponsor?
Seeing none, we will move on to invited testifiers.
Madam Chair, may we a brief at ease?
Brief at Ease.
All the committee back to order at 1.53 p.m.
First is Rita Jo Schultz.
She's the Secretary of the South Keeneye Peninsula
Chapter of The Alaska Farm Bureau.
Welcome to the Committee.
Please state your name and affiliation
for the record and begin your testimony.
Thank you, Madam Chair, honorable members of
the Senate, esteemed colleagues, and distinguished guests.
For the records, my name is Rita Jo Shultz.
I'm the owner, along with my son, Shannon,
and wife, Diane, of Alaska Perfect,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
I'm speaking in favor of Senate Bill 200.
This bill will offer financial relief
to our horticulture farmers.
It will incentivize them and offer new opportunities,
including Alaska's emerging agritourism industry.
Alaska natural beauty offers unlimited opportunities
to attract visitors to participate in farm tours,
farm stays, workshops, cruise ship visits,
and provide unlimited agritary and growth for Alaska's economy.
This bill will help farmers monetize their land and tradition.
Thank you. Thank You very much. Questions from the
committee? Seeing none, thank you for being here
today. With that, I will open public testimony
on Senate Bill 200. Is there anyone in the room wishing to testify?
Seeing that I will close public testimony take a brief at ease
I'll call the committee to order it at 1.56 p.m. We will take an at ease to the call of the chair
Which will be at 2.15 p
I call the committee back to order at 2.15 p.m.
We have a couple of invited testifiers.
First, we have Amy Sites of the Alaska Farm Bureau.
Welcome to the Committee.
If you could please state your name affiliation
for the record and begin your testimony.
Thank you for being here.
Thank You, Madam Chair and members of
the community for The Record.
My name is Amy Sytes.
I'm the Policy Director for
The Alaska farm Bureau and I appreciate
one your patience in the plane arriving in Juneau.
and also the opportunity to speak with you today regarding Senate Bill 200.
And just if you are not familiar with the Alaska Farm Bureau, we're a membership-based advocacy organization.
Our membership is made up of farmers, ranchers, who set our policies and our positions on different issues.
We also have members of the public and other organizations who support agriculture.
There are often conversations we have with our farmers around the state.
About the cost of doing business in Alaska and most of the costs are out of our control
You know the cast of fertilizers and and whatnot
So when there's a tool that can give our farmers some relief
We're really grateful for the opportunity to help support them help them out help reduce the input costs
So this legislation represents a Tool
In our efforts to Help some of Our Alaska farmers reduce these input cost you'll reduce The rising cost they're Experiencing
And it threatens their livelihoods and their ability to stay in business.
And I'm, you may be aware across the nation, across
the world, input cost for farming and ranching has become a more
substantial struggle for the agriculture community.
We've watched the cost tick up and sometimes soar consistently since COVID.
COVID was the start. There have been multiple things after that impacting the cost of inputs.
According to the 2022 census of agriculture that USDA puts out, Alaska farmers faced a 33%
increase in production costs from the prior census year. And that trend seems to be continuing.
You may have heard us talk about the census of agriculture and the numbers and you know
We've been doing it for many years
And this is because our excitement remains
Alaska is one of the only states in the country where the number of farms is increasing and we're increasing at a more
significant percentage than the other states increasing
But we also have to be honest about our current situation our industry is still small
you were
about 1,200 farms in the ag census.
We do know there are other farms out there
who haven't filled out the census,
but the numbers we have are about 2,300 farms.
And while those providing the sport to our farmers
do incredible work yesterday, the Senate resources heard,
or House resources, heard from the UAF research and extension,
they do great job supporting our farmer,
The problem is, they don't have the capacity.
There isn't the level of support for them to give the amount of
support our farmers and ranchers need to truly scale up the industry.
So Senate Bill 200 is a critical piece of that support puzzle.
It makes property tax reductions accessible to farmers across all sectors,
which is something our members deeply appreciate.
Specifically, this bill allows non-food farmers to become eligible for those reductions again.
And this is our fluoroculture industry.
I believe we still have a Christmas tree farm, which is interesting enough.
Taylor Swift grew up on a Christmastree farm in her childhood.
So some good connections there.
So every farmer in Alaska is important, whether they're growing potatoes or peonies.
we want to encourage them to stay in business, keep their land intact, and keep that land in active
production. So you'll hear more today from the next speaker about how this bill relates to
to protecting that lands, preserving that Land, keeping it in production, so I'm not going to dive
too deep into that part. I'll focus more on the economic development side of things and the
and how keeping farmland in production creates a ripple effect out through our local communities.
Alaska's agriculture industry is brimming with untapped potential.
And we do see this very clearly in the floor culture industry
between 2017 and 22 ag census and it'll be exciting to see what the new numbers are that come out.
went from just under $13 million in 2017
to over $16 million, in 2022.
And then within that, the cut flower industry
where most of our P&E growers are
saw about 150% increase in the value of sales.
And this is just the sales from the production
to the farmer.
But when you think about the revenue,
potential from farms. You have to also look at the community numbers. So there's the direct sales
from the farm. There's also the opportunity for increasing sales tax. The more the farmer produces,
there is sales-tax opportunity there. They also are going to be buying more from other businesses
at other stores in the community. So there's also those sales tax opportunities. We're also
seeing a lot of global interest in coming to Alaska and seeing our flora culture, our peonies.
Agritourism is growing. I know we took a dip around COVID, I think all tourism did.
We saw an agritorism was coming up.
We hit COVID, numbers came down, but we're coming back up again, it seems.
Bringing in people from all across the world, Homer,
they've put on field-to-based dinners, which
has brought in worldwide interest.
They're the city of P&Es.
They have the P and E festival,
which brings a lot of people into that community,
where they're spending money in hotels, restaurants.
I'm sure they are shopping in the local stores.
And I know right now, since we're still small,
of what agritourism could have on Alaska and then there's also looking looking to the future as we
grow our farms we can start processing more products kind of having those secondary industries built
out. I was mentioning earlier that we're starting to have some of our peony growers making teas for
We're also looking at extracting the oils for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
So there's a lot of opportunity even among our non-food farms for these secondary industries,
increasing manufacturing, value-added products, getting the higher dollar in the marketplace
items, creating new jobs.
And that all benefits the local communities.
So, the more we support growth in the core agriculture,
the we stimulate secondary industries and we
support businesses.
As a farmer expands, their need for planting supplies
for the lysers packaging, that all increases.
So this allows existing Alaska stores to do more business
and it creates a magnet for attracting new businesses
to Alaska.
We buy a lot of our inputs from outside.
Either it's not carried in the state or it is not
carried into the quantity our farmers need.
So we ship a lot of our inputs in.
There's already interest from a
lot these companies in what Alaska is going to do.
Are we going expand?
So there's a
lot
of these suppliers looking up here already.
If we could just get, you know, kind of get over that threshold
and get more numbers, I could see them starting to come up
here, do business.
here, there's also the opportunity of expanding enterprises in Alaska, you know, someone,
someone may decide or figure out a pest control option to create here manufacturing the state.
So there is the opportunities to creating in-state businesses also.
many areas around the country that have developed their communities around
agriculture. It brings on a lot of the secondary businesses, a
lot innovation. But anyway, there are many factors needed to get our industry to
the next level. And the property tax reduction are a key piece of that
foundation.
For many farmers, this bill represents the difference between staying in business,
growing, and contributing to their community, or being forced to subdivide and sell their land for
subdividing and putting it in houses or other development.
Supporting all of our farmers regardless of whether they produce food or
non-food items is essential to preserving our land and our economic future.
I urge you to support Senate Bill 200.
I thank you for the opportunity and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you Ms. Seitz questions seeing none we appreciate you being here today.
Next will be Margaret Adset from the Alaska Farmland Trust. Welcome to the Community
and Regional Affairs Committee if you could state your name and affiliation and begin your testimony.
Hello my name is Margaret Adset and i'm the lands coordinator with the Alaskan Farmlands Trust
If you're not familiar with the Alaska Farmland Trust,
we've been in operation for about 20 years,
and our work is to preserve critically at risk
agricultural lands across the state of Alaska.
And at that time, we have been able to protect
a little under 600 acres of land using a mechanism
called conservation easements, which
is a legally enforcement restriction put on the
the land such that we restrict development rights
into the future on those agricultural lands.
So I speak to you coming before you
on a lands management perspective
about how we manage agricultural
lands across the state of Alaska.
Whenever I used to own the Alaska farm tours,
I started the company back in 2016.
And the number one question people would tell me
when they came here is like,
one, is there agricultural land?
And then two, man, you must have so many farms.
But when we look across the state of Alaska,
the actual available lands on the road system of lands
and soils of local importance is relatively small
and is concentrated within the areas
of the Kenai, the Matsuburo, Delta Junction, and Fairbanks,
and then the Upper Susitna.
So when you talk about our actual agricultural capacity
on this state in Alaska and not to diminish anything happening
down in southeast for those listening,
that we have sort of these regional variations.
Those regions I just spoke of by and large
are the most rapidly developing areas
across the state of Alaska.
In 2004, we commissioned Dewberry Associates
to do a study looking at land use change
in the Matzubero in particular.
And we found that from 2013 to 2023,
we saw 11% reduction in agricultural lands.
That was almost 3,000 acres of agricultural land
that were converted into development
during that 10-year period.
The Matzouberro is kind of the canary and the coal mine
for agricultural and conversion.
It's amazing that we have growing communities, and first and foremost I'll say that Alaska
Farmland Trust is not an anti-development organization.
We are here to critically protect one of the most important resources in the state of Alaska,
which is its agricultural lands and the capacity not just now, but into the future to protect
these agricultural grounds.
Now, the farmland trust we can do these easements is a very slow process.
And so, when we're not in the field of protecting grounds,
we look at other mechanisms for which we
can help keep farmers farming.
And one of the most important ones of those currently in existence
are egg-tax deferments.
And it works because when you're using an egg tax deferment,
that landowner feels less pressure to develop their property.
We just sort of went into contract on a conservation easement,
and the land was assessed for a 23-acre parcel in the core area
of the Matt Subaru for $75,000 an acre for fair market value.
For that farmer to forego, their development rights
on that is a significant loss.
They're being asked to forgo about 80% of land value in order
for us to put it under conservation usement.
That's just indicative of the pressure each of these agricultural landowners in our state is put on for development pressure.
And in the absence of having zoning, I said this e-word, in absence to having
zoning we have to use a tax deferment as a mechanism for keeping land and agriculture production.
So no matter if that landowner, if they're aging or elderly or getting out of agriculture can rent that
land into the future and those individuals under.
A land contractor or rental agreement can help sort of qualify that for an egg tax deferment.
And so it's a position of the farmland trust that no matter what is being farmed on that
ground, that that egg text deferments stays in place, is essentially the only stop gap
that we have in the state of Alaska currently for sort
of inhibiting that growth or loss of those agricultural grounds.
In tandem to that, the value of keeping that land
into agriculture goes beyond what can be produced
on it as an economic growth capacity
for the agricultural industry.
It also on a community by community,
if you're looking at your budgetary cycle,
it costs you a lot less to keep land and farming
than it does in having new subdivisions,
which is new schools, which has new EMS services
into those community.
So there is one inherent benefit
by economies by having an agricultural industry in those communities, as well as an alleviation
of a sort of financial burden of local cities and boroughs in managing those agrounds.
So in support of SP200, we hope that you consider supporting that as sort this is our most critical
mechanism right now for farmland protection and preserving or keeping farmland farmland
over time.
Any questions any questions? Thank you. I apologize. It's okay. We're like the same person
Super we like consistency. Yeah
Seeing none. Thank You for being here today. Yes, senator Bjorkman. Do you have any closing comments?
With that we will set Senate bill 200 aside
This concludes our agenda for this afternoon. Our next meeting is Tuesday, February 17th,
2026 at 1 30 p.m. With that, we are adjourned.