During Wendell Murphy's 10 years as a legislator, the General Assembly passed a series of laws offering various advantages to hog producers, particularly corporate producers. Murphy voted "yes" on all those laws, and he had a hand in sponsoring some of them.

Senate Bill 488 -- Sales tax exemption

Sponsor:

Aaron W. Plyler; Harold W. Hardison, 12 others

Introduced:

May 8, 1985

Content:

Exempted from sales tax all materials used for repairing, building or

improving a structure used for housing, raising, or feeding livestock or

poultry, or for housing equipment necessary for these activities.

Ratified:

July 11, 1986.

Murphy vote:

Yes.

Effect:

Fiscal Research Division estimated tax loss to state and local

governments in 1985-86 at $737,550. Annual cost today, due to inflation,

sales-tax increases and hog-house building boom, would be substantially

higher.

Senate Bill 93 -- Gas tax exemption

Sponsor:

Aaron W. Plyler; Harold W. Hardison and six others

Introduced:

March 8, 1985

Content:

Cut the cost of gas burned by feed delivery trucks by 3 to 4 cents a

gallon. The rationale was that feed delivery trucks should not have to pay

highway use taxes on fuel burned while they were unloading.

Ratified:

July 9, 1985

Murphy vote:

Yes.

Effect:

The General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division estimated the cost of

this provision at $200,000 a year in fuel taxes.

House Bill 519 -- Inspection fee exemption

Sponsor:

Robert L. McAlister; Wendell H. Murphy; 14 others

Introduced:

April 9, 1987

Content:

Murphy proposed, and the House Appropriations Committee adopted, a

substitute that exempted the biggest of the hog corporations from paying the

12-cent state inspection fee on each ton of ingredients purchased for their

own use.

Ratified:

July 5, 1988.

Murphy vote:

Yes.

Effect:

General Assembly already had exempted ingredients purchased by

corporate hog and poultry farms and supplied to contract farmers who raise

their animals. This law exempts ingredients used by the big corporations to

feed hogs raised by their own employees.

Senate Bill 853 -- Sales tax exemption #2

Sponsor:

Harold W. Hardison

Introduced:

May 5, 1987

Content:

Eliminated sales tax on livestock and poultry house equipment and

equipment used in constructing the houses.

Ratified:

Aug. 12, 1987.

Murphy vote:

Yes.

Effect:

Fiscal Research Division estimated annual revenue loss for 1987-88 at

$200,000 to $225,000. Loss would be substantially higher now for three

reasons: the total state and local sales tax has increased to 6 percent from 4

percent; inflation, totaling 25 percent; and the explosive growth of the hog

industry.

Senate Bill 1645 -- Property tax exemption

Sponsor:

Dennis J. Winner; A.D. Guy

Introduced:

June 13, 1988

Content:

Eliminated local property taxes on feed used in the production of

livestock and poultry.

Ratified:

July 5, 1988.

Murphy vote:

Yes on amendment that eliminated the property tax on feed.

Effect:

Murphy's company owns several feed mills. The largest one, called "The

Chief," is able to grind 25 railroad cars of corn a day. According to a 1993

company publication it has storage capacity for about 1.6 million bushels of

corn worth more than $3 million. Inside the mill will be storage space for

4,000 tons of other ingredients plus storage space for 4,000 tons of feed.

this bill exempted all of those feed stuffs from property tax.

Senate Bill 148 -- Zoning exemption

Sponsor:

James D. Speed; Wendell H. Murphy; two others

Introduced:

Feb. 20, 1991.

Content:

The General Assembly had never allowed counties to zone a "bona

fide" farm, but it had not defined bona fide farm. This bill did that. It

said bona fide farm purpose included the production of livestock [swine] and

poultry.

Ratified:

May 6, 1991

Murphy vote:

Yes

Effect:

Counties may not use zoning authority to restrict hog farms.

Senate Bill 386 -- Weakened environmental penalties

Sponsor:

Dennis J. Winner and George B. Daniel; 16 co-sponsors.

Introduced:

April 1, 1991

Content:

When the bill was being considered by the Senate Committee on

Environment and Natural Resources Murphy asked for, and got, an amendment that

exempted poultry and hog farms, including his own.

Ratified:

June 26, 1991.

Murphy vote:

Yes.

Effect:

Murphy's amendment would have crippled the state's ability to penalize

hog farms that discharge hog manure into streams. A subsequent House amendment

imposed a $5,000 penalty.

Senate Bill 669 -- Provides lobbying money

Sponsors:

James D. Speed; 21 others.

Introduced:

April 17, 1991.

Content:

Allowed the N.C. Pork Producers Association Inc., with the permission

of pork producers, to collect a 1 cent a hog levy. That levy amounted to

$85,071 last fiscal year.

Ratified:

July 9, 1991

Murphy vote:

Yes.

Effect:

This provides the association with money that can be used to lobby

state legislators, fight lawsuits, and other purposes prohibited with money

derived from a federal checkoff.

House Bill 33 -- Hampers envrionmental efforts

Sponsor:

Vernon G. James; four co-sponsors

Introduced:

Feb. 3, 1993

Content:

Titled, "An act to allow the limited disclosure of veterinary

medical records in the Department of Agriculture,"this bill did just the

opposite -- it gave the department a way to deny access to its records.

Ratified:

March 10, 1993

Vote:

Murphy was out of office in 1993, but James E. Stocker, an executive of Murphy

Farms, opposed release of state agricultural records giving locations and

sizes of hog farms.

Effect:

State environmental researchers studying the effect of hog farms on

water quality have been blocked from obtaining and using agriculture

department records including information on hog farm sites and sizes.

Sources: General Assembly library; Department of Revenue; UNC Institute of Government; Department of Agriculture

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