Funds for the Carrboro Farmers’ Market “Truck Bucks†and other innovative programs for local farmers could quickly dry up if a GOP plan to tap money from the state’s Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund is approved, farm advocates say.
The fund, intended to help farmers and rural communities’ transition away from tobacco, is one of several state funds GOP leaders in the General Assembly want to use to fill a budget shortfall.
The state Senate approved the plan this week. Hearings by the N.C. House are expected to open next week.
Orange County’s new Piedmont Value Added Processing Center in Hillsborough and Eastern Carolina Organics in Pittsboro are among the recipients of funding from the program.