Alabama: Encourage your lawmakers to co-sponsor the ACRE Act

Inflation and supply-chain disruptions are driving up the cost of running America’s farms and ranches, forcing farmers to rely more heavily on credit.

69% of aspiring young farmers cited access to capital as a top challenge, second only to finding affordable land to buy.

Congress has a chance to help make access to credit more affordable for rural America.

How? By passing legislation – the Access to Credit for our Rural Economy (ACRE) Act. This important piece of legislation would expand access to affordable agricultural real estate and rural home loans by creating a tax exemption for interest-income received by a qualified lender on agricultural loans and home mortgages in rural communities.

ACRE will deliver approximately $1.15 billion worth of annual interest expense savings to farmers, ranchers, and rural homeowners in over 17,000 rural communities across the country – approximately $950 million for loans secured by farmland and $200 million for rural mortgages. This savings would equal 118% of farmers’ annual personal property taxes in 2022. (ABA estimate, USDA)

Improving competition in ag real estate markets would also allow banks to extend more ag real estate credit to more borrowers. ACRE will expand banks’ rural mortgage lending to ACRE communities by approximately $200,000 per community per year. (ABA estimate)

Write to your federal lawmakers and encourage them to co-sponsor this important piece of legislation and help make access to credit more affordable for rural America.