Off-Road Diesel Tax Break Brings Some Comfort To Farmers

"I was a dairy farmer for 40 years, we've gotten into the sod business, but I've been a farmer all my life," says Bernard Sims.

Sims says he's seen success in most of years farming.
But he's not immune to rising costs and a slowing economy.

"(The)last couple of years," he says, "we've seen our margin of profit diminish, because--especially in the building industry, things are slow."

And everything from the Caterpillar machines, to forklifts that Sims uses for his business take off-road diesel.

The gas is *not* cheap, and for Sims, he has to get a lot for his farm.

"The combination of off road and on road fuel, about 2,000 gallons a month, and there's not much that way to cut that down," he says.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue is doing a cutting of a different sort to help the state's farmers. He's suspending a 4% sales tax on off-road diesel.

Todd Hice with the USDA Farm Service Agency says the suspension will help, though not much.

"It'll help some, it's not going to be a great impact, it's not gonna cut it in half by no means, but any savings right now is going to be a benefit to the farmer," he says.

Hice says even though the price of food has gone up, it's not translating into more profits for farmers, adding, "even though commodity prices are at record high levels, their input levels are at really high levels, so their profit margin is going to be about the same as it was in the past"

For Sims, though, any bit helps. But if things don't slow down, it might mean some tough decisions.

"It's a situation where you don't want to increase your price any more than you have to so we've tried to absorb some of it. But there comes a point to where you can't keep absorbing it, otherwise you might as well sit down and sit still."

And Sims says you can't sit still in an economy like this, adding, "with the fluxuation on prices and something always going up, you don't know how to plan, you know...we need a stable market."

Perdue's order doesn't come without a loss to the state.

The move is expected to cost Georgia $2-4 million in revenue.