During a Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee hearing attended by Utah Farm Bureau Federation President ValJay Rigby, U.S. Senator John Curtis (R-UT) highlighted the challenges facing family farms and small businesses, emphasizing the need for commonsense tax policy, regulatory reform, and greater access to capital.
During opening remarks, Senator Curtis introduced Mr. Rigby as a hearing witness. During questioning, Curtis focused on the growing regulatory burden facing farmers and ranchers, asking how federal regulations contribute to consolidation in agriculture and what Congress can do to help family operations remain competitive. Mr. Rigby explained that simplifying regulations, expanding access to capital, and supporting value-added agriculture are critical to helping producers manage rising costs and continue operating.
Video of the Senator’s introduction and questioning and a transcript can be found below.
Introduction:
Senator Curtis: Thank you, Chair Young. It’s my privilege to introduce today’s witness from the great state of Utah. Mr. ValJay Rigby, thank you for being here today.
Mr. Rigby serves as president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, our state’s largest general agriculture organization, representing more than 3,700 members and their families. ValJay is a fifth-generation farmer from Newton, Utah, where his family continues to farm land that was part of its original 1869 homestead.
Today, he farms alongside his brothers and his children, raising beef cattle and growing approximately 1,500 acres of alfalfa and small grains. Mr. Rigby holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in information systems from Utah State University. He has also served as president of the Cache County Farm Bureau, on local planning and zoning and water boards, and as a volunteer firefighter.
Thank you, Mr. Rigby, for making the trip from Utah to join us today. I’m sure they’re missing you back on the farm, but thank you for being here, and I look forward to hearing your testimony.
Questioning:
Curtis: Mr. Rigby, two things you said in your testimony: one I have a comment on; the other, I have a question. You talked about how you were developing character in youth, and I will just tell you, as a previous small business owner myself, if anybody ever walked in my door and said they grew up on a farm in Utah or Idaho, we hired them, no questions asked. They’re hard workers, they’re disciplined, and they’re problem-solvers. I would totally agree with you.
You also alluded to the fact that you don’t have a room full of lawyers and attorneys to help navigate these regulations, and I want to focus on that for just a minute, particularly as it relates to the move toward consolidation in farms and ranches. If you think about the high costs that my colleague from Colorado alluded to, and the regulatory burden, what role is that playing in this consolidation? And how do we here in Washington help you push back on that?
ValJay Rigby: I appreciate the question. Any time that we can reduce the regulatory burden on farmers and producers and simplify those programs, it is a tremendous help because, as a farmer, I wear lots of hats every day. I’m a business owner. I manage my finances. I’m constantly thinking about my cash flow. I may have lots of assets, but I have no cash in the bank. Just ask my banker.
Any time we can provide opportunities to incentivize adding value to the crops that I grow on my farm, that increases the revenue that comes into my farm. Any of those programs are a benefit. When we can incentivize lower interest rates, that’s one of the challenges in agriculture: access to capital and credit. A beginning farmer who’s just starting out faces the challenge that we’ve talked about. They don’t have decades of experience or a balance sheet to show the bank that they’re a good risk. Any of those programs are a tremendous help to our producers.
Curtis: Thank you.
You mentioned the diesel fuel, and I suspect that’s an investment you’ve made that doesn’t pay off the next week, or the next month. You’re making investments that literally don’t pay off for years. I’m curious, as we reflect on tax policy here and the way it impacts small businesses, given your limited cash flow and margins, talk to us about tax policy—what we do here—and how it influences you, both good and bad.
Rigby: We appreciate last summer’s Working Families Tax Cut Act. It’s helpful for production agriculture. Having that certainty to know, as a producer, that I have that permanent $15 million per individual exemption from the estate tax is really important, so I can plan and have some certainty. The biggest asset that I have as a producer is the land, and I need that certainty as I plan.
Some of the other provisions are also a help to us. Any little bit that helps reduce some of that tax burden and incentivizes reinvestment in my farm is a great help.
Curtis: Just to state the obvious: if, upon your death, your heirs had to pay taxes before they could continue operating that farm, it would not make it to a sixth generation. Is that a fair statement?
Rigby: That is a fair statement. There’s no way they could do that. I was lucky enough to farm with my grandfather and my father. My father passed away a few years ago, and if he had died a few years earlier, we would have had a difficult time maintaining our farm if we had been caught in that window.
Curtis: Thank you. I’ve got just a moment left. I’d like to ask all of you to give me a quick answer and give me a sense of how our tax policy and our regulatory policies impact your hiring and financing decisions. Ms. High, we’ll start with you.
Nikki High: Thank you for that question. So much is dependent on our ability to have cash flow, similar to Mr. Rigby. Any break that we get from a tax perspective helps offset our built-in costs, including credit card servicing fees and other fees. Having a tax policy that benefits us allows us to continue hiring in the community and to do more outreach and advocacy programs.
Curtis: Thank you. Mr. Malshe.
Dr. Ajay Malshe: Thank you, Mr. Curtis, for asking that question. I think the two areas where it would help immensely: any dollars that go toward deep-tech product development or deep-tech research. If there can be a policy where those are not taxed, or taxed at a low rate, that would help because research converts money into knowledge, and if you tax the knowledge, you tax how you make the product. So I think research credits for small deep-tech businesses would be very helpful. Second, investment tax credits. If investments made in small businesses receive tax credits, that will increase investment in deep-tech businesses.
Lorena Cantarovici: I think we need to see everything globally, right? I’m not an expert in taxes—thank God. I take care of my [profit and loss statements] and pay attention to all the numbers. But I think as everything evolves, taxes should evolve too, and that we make sure the proportions are equal to what we’re paying. As a small business owner, I want to pay taxes. That means I’m alive. I want to create jobs, and I want to pay employment taxes as well—that’s part of doing business. I think it’s very important that we make sure everything grows in the same way. If I’m able to sell and the economy is good, we all want to pay the right taxes. If the economy isn’t good, we need help—but we need to survive. I don’t want to be in survival mode. I want to be in growth mode.
Curtis: Thank you. I’ll simply end by saying I wish all members of the Senate could have been small business owners. I think we would make a lot better decisions. Thank you all for your hard work and your commitment. Thank you.
