2017 Legislative Priorities for CO Farm Bureau

The Colorado legislative session began earlier this week. The 71st session of the Colorado General Assembly has split chambers with the Democrats controlling the House and the Republicans the Senate. The Colorado Farm Bureau top priorities for this year are: water, property rights, energy, infrastructure, wildlife and animal welfare.

Colorado Farm Bureau State Affairs Director Emily Ibach provides more details

Ibach: "Water is always a big issue for us. It is a big issue for Colorado. So we aways expect that there will be a lot of water issues that we have to deal with. One in particular that we know we will have to deal with is a bill that we call the St. Jude's Bill. It's a bill that is in response to a Supreme Court ruling. It's a bill that will clarify the way that water court will deem water for beneficial uses. So that is one bill that we have coming up."

Infrastructure is critical to farmers and ranchers, Ibach explains

Ibach: "We also expect that transportation funding will be a big issue. Transportation funding in Colorado is a big deal. We never have enough money for our roads and bridges. As far as the Colorado Farm Bureau is concerned, we're very interested in seeing funding going out to rural areas because our rural farmers and ranchers need good roads and good bridges in order to get their products, and their livestock and their commodities to market. So that is a big issue for us."

An additional element of infrastructure is access to internet broad band for rural communities.