Independence Can’t Be Subsidized

This July 4th, New York Farmers Deserve Freedom Not Another Government Gimmick

By Assemblyman Chris Tague

Every year around Independence Day, we celebrate the people who built this country through hard work, sacrifice, and self-reliance.

No one embodies those values more than New York’s family farmers.

Which is why Governor Kathy Hochul’s so-called “Tariff Relief” program is nothing more than an insulting slap in the face.

Let’s call it what it is: a political press release disguised as farm policy.

The Governor wants New Yorkers to believe Washington tariffs are the reason family farms are struggling. That’s a convenient election-year narrative. It also ignores the reality farmers live every single day.

The biggest threat to agriculture isn’t tariffs.

It’s Albany.

It’s skyrocketing electricity bills driven by failed energy policies. It’s higher fuel costs, crushing regulations, the farm overtime mandate, skyrocketing labor costs, taxes, and endless government interference that makes it harder and more expensive to produce food in New York than almost anywhere else in America.

Those costs don’t disappear because Albany mails out a one-time check.

The state has appropriated $30 million in your tax dollars for this program, with payments as low as $1,000 to a maximum of $25,000. That may sound impressive in a press release, but for many family farms, it doesn’t even cover a month’s operating expenses. Feed, fertilizer, fuel, electricity, equipment, insurance, payroll—the bills keep coming long after the state check is gone.

I’ve seen this before.

Years ago, Albany rolled out similar farm assistance programs under different names. Farmers got a little help for a day, then woke up the next morning facing the exact same problems. 

Nothing changed because the policies creating the crisis never changed.

What’s especially revealing is If this is truly “tariff relief,” why aren’t applicants required to demonstrate how tariffs actually harmed their business? There is no meaningful requirement to document tariff-related losses or prove federal trade policy caused their financial hardship.

So if this program is really about tariffs, why doesn’t it require proof that tariffs caused the problem?

Because this program isn’t really about tariffs.

It’s about politics.

Instead of taking responsibility for years of bad policies that have driven up the cost of farming in New York, the Governor has found a convenient villain. Blame Washington. Blame the President. Blame Republicans. Blame anyone but the people who have controlled Albany and written the policies that have made New York one of the most expensive places in America to farm and live.

Meanwhile, the real affordability crisis continues.

Farm families have watched energy costs explode. They’ve been forced to absorb new labor mandates and overtime requirements that don’t reflect the realities of agriculture. They’ve seen productive farmland targeted for industrial-scale solar projects while Albany claims to support farming. Milk prices remain volatile while operating costs continue climbing. Farmers don’t control what they’re paid for their products, but every year Albany finds new ways to increase what it costs to produce them.

That’s the crisis.

If Albany truly cared to help agriculture, it would lower energy costs. It would eliminate unnecessary regulations. It would revisit overtime mandates that are hurting family farms. It would stop making New York less competitive and less affordable for the very people who feed our communities.

This weekend, Americans will gather to celebrate Independence Day and the 250th Birthday of this great nation.

We’ll honor the courage, sacrifice, and self-reliance that built this nation.

Those same values are alive every day on family farms across New York.

Our farmers aren’t asking for special treatment. 

They want affordable energy. They want common-sense regulations. They want the freedom to hire workers without being crushed by costly mandates.

They want to know that if they work hard, take risks, and produce the safest, highest-quality food in the world, government won’t make it harder to succeed.

That’s real relief.

That’s real resiliency.

And that’s real independence.

If Governor Hochul and the out-of-touch liberals running this state truly want to help agriculture, they should stop using struggling farmers as political props, stop blaming everyone else, and start fixing the policies that created this affordability crisis in the first place.

Because the future of New York agriculture will never be secured by a one-time government check.

It will be secured when family farms can once again stand on their own.

This Fourth of July, let’s remember that independence isn’t something government hands us. It’s something government should protect.

No Farms. No Food.