| WASHINGTON --The president of the CountryBank USA in Cando,
N.D., represented the Independent Community Bankers Association at
President-elect Bush's economic summit Wednesday in Austin, Texas.
Terry Jorde told the Bush team that farmland values are being held up
by federal spending and that rural America needs a new farm program that
provides more money to farmers when prices are low.
Jorde said rural America is suffering because of its "reliance on
income from producing agricultural and petroleum products. As you know,
the bottom has dropped out of revenues, and costs of production have
soared, creating massive losses of equity in farms and small
businesses."
The ICBA Washington office, which represents the nation's smaller
banks, released Jorde's testimony, along with a statement noting she was
the only person with an agricultural or small bank background attending
the meeting.
"It is important to recognize that supplemental aid, disaster
assistance and crop insurance are holding up land values throughout rural
America, providing collateral on loans to thousands of community
banks," Jorde said.
Jorde urged Bush to "consider a new farm program, sooner rather
than later, that provides greater income to farmers when prices decline
and that provides greater stability and risk management tools so that ag
producers and rural communities can plan for a future."
Noting that her county has lost 17 percent of its population in recent
years, Jorde said she believes "that rural America is at the point of
crisis. There comes a point where populations of communities can fall
below a critical mass and become destined for an irreversible decline,
lacking the human resources and human leadership to remain viable. The per
capita cost of providing services becomes too expensive."
Jorde also urged the Bush team to help rural America with incentives
for job development, improve Internet communication and to
"dramatically increase" federal deposit insurance levels for
deposits in community banks so that they can compete with big banks and
tax-exempt institutions.
"From 1989 to 1999, we lost 32 percent of the nation's community
banks -- over 4,000 banks," Jorde said. "Community banks are the
economic engine and lifeblood that power small business in our
nation." |