Letter to the editor: Crabtree doesn’t understand issues with elevators

The October issue of the Union Farmer, published by the Farmers Union, tells us a lot about the race for the Public Service Commission. In responding to a question about elevator insolvencies, Sen. Randy Christmann took the careful, measured approach that has made him an effective state senator for almost two decades. He is actually listening to agriculture producers and farm groups to put together the best solutions.

On the other hand, Brad Crabtree has rushed into press conferences with another of his typical quick-fix, big-government solutions. He calls for growing the credit sale indemnity fund, which means another tax on agriculture producers who use credit sales to market their grain. Then he proposes to use the credit sale indemnity fund to insure losses incurred on other types of transactions, such as pre-paid fertilizer and chemicals.

Crabtree apparently does not understand that not all farmers enter into credit sales and not all farmers pre-pay their inputs. Using money taxed from one group to insure losses sustained by the other group is absurd. Furthermore, there are many dealers who market pre-paid inputs that are not elevators at all and do not fall under Public Service Commission jurisdiction.

The reality is that this whole topic is enormously complex in today’s market, and we cannot afford to elect Crabtree because he clearly does not understand production agriculture and he rushes into decisions without talking to the people who will have to live under the new regulations.

As a lifelong farmer, I feel the choice is clear. We need to elect Christmann to the PSC.

Rep. Craig Headland

Montpelier, N.D

(Headland, a Republican, represents District 29 in the North Dakota House of Representatives)

Tags: opinion, letters, politics