Posted on 10/18/2004 10:21:42 AM PDT by Constitution Day
Burr touts buyout during area visit
By George A. Chidi, Rocky Mount Telegram
The next step legislators can take would be to let farmers sell their extra tobacco early now that Congress has voted to end the tobacco quota system, said the Republicans' candidate for the U.S. Senate at a Saturday morning campaign stop in Rocky Mount.
U.S. Rep. Richard Burr, R-5th District, hopes to add the rules change to an omnibus appropriations bill before the end of the year, he said shortly after meeting with supporters at the Hampton Inn in Rocky Mount.
"With the quota system going away, there's no reason they should have to wait," Burr said.
The federal government set production limits for tobacco growers under the system Congress voted to repeal this month. The extra tobacco grown cannot legally be sold until the marketing year ends.
Congress voted to buy out the Depression-era price control system, granting $3 per pound of allotted tobacco harvest for farmers who rent other people’s quota to grow tobacco and $7 per pound for the quota holders. The $10 billion legislation passed as an amendment to a broad corporate tax revision.
Republicans have hoped to use passage of the buyout to draw votes for Burr. The Winston-Salem congressman sat on the joint House-Senate conference committee negotiating the final version of the bill.
"There are two reasons we got the tobacco buyout: Richard Burr and (U.S. Sen.) Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.)," said N.C. Republican Party Chairman Ferrell Blount to the gathered supporters, likening the buyout to a reprieve for a death row inmate."
Burr presented former Lt. Gov. Jim Gardner an American flag that had flown over the Capitol.
The Burr campaign toured Eastern North Carolina on Saturday with a phalanx of down-ticket Republican candidates, including Lt. Gov. nominee Jim Snyder, treasurer nominee Ed Meyer, attorney general nominee Joe Knott and insurance commissioner nominee Robert Brawley and agriculture commissioner nominee Joe Knight.
Five judicial candidates accompanied Burr: John Tyson and Paul Newby – both running for the N.C. Supreme Court – and Barbara Jackson, Alice Stubbs and Bill Parker, each running for appellate court seats.
Area Republican candidates also appeared: Danny Tyson, a candidate for Nash County board of commissioners, and Marshall Prewer, a candidate running for Nash County register of deeds.
"I think people will do what they always do, and vote the person and not the party," Prewer said, noting the greater number of registered Democrats than Republicans in his county. "In Nash County, they split a ticket."
BTTT
I dunno who Joe Knight is, but our ag nominee is Steve Troxler.
Nice catch -- that's sloppy reporting.
I was at this event and met Mr. Troxler. That's who the reporter meant.
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