Tuesday, February 02, 2010

The Timing Shifts for Crop Insurance Payments

Chris Clayton has another post on crop insurance.  One of the things Congress often does is play with the timing of payments so the totals for fiscal years come out right.  Sometimes they'll move payments forward so if they're working on a budget for 2011FY the payments will be made right at the end of 2010FY.  Because the budget for 2010FY was passed last year, there's no harm done to the budget process.  Or, as they did for crop insurance, they'll delay some payments to fall outside the budget window (maybe the year of the budget, or maybe the 5 or 10-year window).  The better parts of our media will sometimes note these games in passing, but I've yet to see a comprehensive article that crosses years.  For example, one year it's crop insurance, another year it's deficiency payments, but when everything is done and paid, what has happened?

No comments: