The Senate concurred in the House's proposal of amendment to H.484, a miscellaneous agricultural subjects bill, after the House removed a provision that would have allowed farms to donate up to $2,000 of product to maintain current-use classification, the chamber heard.

"The house ... removed section 5 of our bill, which allowed farms to donate up to $2,000 of their product to keep them in the current use," the Senator from Essex said on the floor. The senator told colleagues the change originated in an economic-development summit and said lawmakers intend to "take it up on the next biennium" and "probably do even a little bit more with that."

The Senate agreed to suspend its rules earlier in the session to take up H.484. After debate on the House amendment, senators voted by voice vote to concur. The senator noted the committee recommendation to concur and characterized the committee vote as 5-0-0.

Procedural steps: after the Senate concurred in the House amendment, the Senator from Chittenden moved that the Senate message its concurrence to the House forthwith; that motion carried by voice vote.

Next steps: lawmakers said they expect to revisit the removed donation provision during the next biennium.

Discussion versus decision: the floor remarks reported a House change and the Senate's concurrence adopted that House amendment as the legislative position; the Senate did not adopt a new donation allowance in this action.