Jump to full article: Kingsport (TN) Times-News, 2005-09-19
Author: KEVIN CASTLE / Times-News
Intro: A federal lawsuit filed by two Washington County, Va., farmers says the U.S. secretary of Agriculture deviated from the original formula derived for the federal tobacco buyout plan.
Court documents state that William J. Neese and Daniel M. Johnson brought suit against the USDA and Secretary Mike Johanns seeking a declaratory judgment against the agency because of unconstitutional regulations submitted by Johanns when the buyout was included in the American Jobs Creation Act.
The law signed by President George W. Bush in October 2004 calls for $9.6 billion to be paid to burley tobacco producers over a 10-year period.
The law dissolved a quota and price support system developed by the government for burley farmers in the late 1930s which effectively acted as a government license that regulated the amount of tobacco a producer could grow each year.
Neese and Johnson charge that Johanns used a "convoluted formula" that included a number of terms and figures that were contrary to the formula originally drafted leading up to the law being signed.
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