The marathon continues. Even with tremendous momentum and support, the Family Farm Preservation Act was not included within the revenue package state lawmakers adopted last month to close the spring legislative session.

But the fight to secure this IFB legislative priority is not over. We plan to continue our push for passage of the Family Farm Preservation Act, a bill to reform the Illinois estate tax for farmers, in the Illinois General Assembly’s upcoming fall veto session.

Although the Family Farm Preservation Act had miniscule fiscal impact on the state budget, IFB’s State Legislative Team reports the legislative leaders and their “budgeteers” chose to only include changes in the revenue part of the budget that brought more tax dollars into state coffers.

Some lawmakers also held concerns the bill would encourage other industries to demand changes, leading to more impacts to future state revenue. Other lawmakers reportedly want to make additional changes to the estate tax beyond its impact to family farms and would prefer to make those changes at the same time.

That said, IFB’s State Legislative Team tells me the legislation was a topic of discussion among the four legislative leaders and Gov. JB Pritzker in the final rounds of budget negotiations. We see this as a positive sign, one indicating serious interest in moving the issue forward in the future.

The bipartisan support and momentum that had built around the Family Farm Preservation Act the last 18 months is due in no small part to our organization’s grassroots strength and powerful engagement from IFB members. We all must continue to keep this momentum going.

More than 1,000 calls were made by IFB members to state legislative offices in response to the Action Request IFB launched on May 21. THANK YOU to those members who answered the call and made their voices heard on the burden the Illinois estate tax brings to their family farms.

My sincere thanks also go to Whiteside County Farm Bureau member Jeff Brooks and Woodford County Farm Bureau member Ali Gibbs for joining me in Springfield in April to testify in support of the Family Farm Preservation Act.

As farm visits with your legislators and Adopted Legislators are scheduled throughout the summer and into the fall for harvest, please continue to educate state lawmakers on the burden the Illinois estate tax places on farm families and highlight the need to pass this vital legislation.

More information on the bill can be found at Family Farm Preservation Act | Illinois Farm Bureau (ilfb.org)