Boothe Rebuts Norris Statement

ST. MARY’S TODAY

GREAT MILLS -- Kenneth Boothe, former president of St. Mary’s County Farm Bureau, has categorically said that he was never kicked out of the bureau but that he resigned from the position of president voluntarily in 1997.

“Basically I am disappointed,” Boothe said in a rebuttal to the comments of 

James “Bubbly” Norris, himself a former farm bureau president, saying Boothe had been kicked out of the president’s office because of not following the bureau’s collective policy.

Boothe pointed out he was still a member of the farm bureau, though not an officer.

 “I was never impeached or kicked out. It was a voluntary and conscious decision,” Boothe, said presenting a copy of the letter to St. Mary’s County Farm Bureau, dated September 22, 1997, to ST. MARY’S TODAY.

Boothe termed Norris’s comment, “An attempt to diminish my First Amendment Rights.”

Recalling his resignation as president almost nine years ago, he said, “The direction in which the local and state farm bureaus were moving weren’t consistent with preserving the property rights of all farmers across the board. That was the reason I resigned.”

Norris made the comments about Boothe following a public hearing of the St. Mary’s Board of County Commissioners, where both he and Boothe spoke, Norris in support of the TDR program and Boothe against it.

Boothe had called the TDR Program just too extreme and invasive for farmers, but Norris attributed that to lack of understanding of the TDR program on Boothe’s part. “I have the right to express my views whether somebody agrees or not,” Boothe said.

He said, “Landowners and farmers are not the cause of growth in St. Mary’s County, and the primary solution to the growth problem should not be carried out on the backs of landowners and farmers through forced downsizing as the answer in the RPD.”

Boothe said he sincerely believes both the agricultural easement program and the new TDR program need improvements.

He said, “Really what the new TDR program boils down to is that they are trying to lump all farmers into having one point of view on how to best preserve their farms.”

Boothe pointed out, “There is one group of farmers that feels they can best preserve the interest of agricultural farmers by signing agricultural easements, but the other group thinks signing the easement for perpetuity means they are forfeiting the equitable increase in the value of their lands for ever.”

Boothe said the new TDR program demonstrates a lack of vision when it comes to protecting the future of the farmers and their rights as owners of their land.  “I want to preserve viable farm businesses. The farmers should have as many options available to them over their property as any other business,” Boothe said.

Boothe urged farm families should be able to retain their farms as a form of investment and felt it was detrimental to their long-term interest to downzone their properties with the stroke of a pen.

He said he has reservations about the new TDR program “because they are thinking more in terms of open spaces than lucrative farm businesses.”

Boothe said he is dissatisfied with the Rural Legacy Program because it takes away the property rights of farmers in perpetuity.  He said, “The Rural Legacy Program talks about large contiguous tracts of land, but in St. Mary’s county for the most part we don’t have large farms. There are only small farms.”

Boothe contended, “The money should be spread out among as many farmers as possible based on reasonable terms of year purchases. The money in the Rural Legacy Program should be distributed equitably among more farmers. I don’t think it’s fair as it stands now.”

The farmer is placed in a burdensome situation with the taxes and costs associated with living in a growing community with ever increasing costs of living. “Assessments on the family home on the farm changes with the subdivision next door. I see no sense in locking the farmers at one level of equity, whereas price of everything goes on increasing,” he said.

Boothe said he was not criticizing the farm bureau for many of their positive accomplishments, but does have the right to differ with the board members on official programs that he thinks would affect farmers and their lands for years to come.

He conceded he does not see eye to eye with some of the present policies of the farm bureau board. “The current farm bureau policy has a strong tendency to isolate the farmers by putting them in a position of disadvantage as members of the community at large,” Boothe concluded.