Millionaires get farm payments; nobody checking [View All]

[Mari333]

Source: wwmt news

November 25, 2008 - 7:47 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional investigators say a sports team owner, a financial executive and residents of Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia are among the more than 2,700 millionaire recipients of farm payments from 2003 to 2006. And it's not even clear they were farmers.

The 2002 farm bill required an income test for the first time.

An individual or farm entity was ineligible if average adjusted gross income exceeded $2.5 million over three years — unless 75 percent or more of that income came from farming, ranching and forestry.

According to the report, the 2,702 recipients exceeded the $2.5 million and got less than 75 percent of their income from these activities. The payments to them totaled more than $49 million.



The GAO says the problem will only get worse, because the payments they cited only covered the 2002 farm bill subsidies. The 2008 farm legislation has provisions that could allow even more people to receive improper payments without effective checks.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gghwfBjir9EgnJRNo8qcohD122EgD94LJPM00


http://www.wwmt.com/articles/payments_1356149___article.html/farm_millionaire.html

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