News Coverage
Farm Aid Going to Millionaires
Some farm subsidies go to millionaire land owners.
Published August 13, 2008
CLEARWATER - In the 1930's, Congress started giving money to struggling farmers to help them survive the Great Depression, and over the years the amount of money grew like a weed.
Last year, the Farm Bill paid out more than $5 billion in subsidies, but one man who received millions doesn't look much like a farmer.
Businessman Maurice Wilder doesn’t go to work on a tractor. Instead, he drives a Rolls Royce and takes an elevator to the top floor of a Clearwater office building which he owns. Wilder made his fortune in real estate with office buildings, RV resorts, and mobile home parks in Florida and Texas.
He's worth more than $400 million and owns much downtown Tampa's Harbor Island. But as part of his portfolio, Wilder also owns plenty of farmland in several states. Those farms grow primarily corn, soybeans and wheat. That's how he was able to apply for millions of dollars in federal farm subsidies.
"If there wouldn't have been a subsidy, I don't think we would have continued farming," Wilder told investigative reporter Doug Smith.
Some in Congress want to put an income cap on subsidies to make millionaire investors ineligible.
"The farm bill was meant to support small family farmers and help struggling farmers stay on the farm," said Michelle Perez who is with the Washington D.C. based, Environmental Working Group which crunched the numbers and found Maurice Wilder topped the list of individuals getting farm subsidies from 2003 to 2006.
"When you have millionaire landowners that receive taxpayer dollars every year just because they're wealthy enough to own farm land, that's a system that's broken and needs to be fixed." Perez said.
The Environmental Working Group notes other farmers getting taxpayer money include billionaire businessman David Rockefeller and former basketball star Scottie Pippin. While critics call this corporate welfare, Maurice Wilder doesn’t see it that way.
"Whether it's a big farmer or a small farmer, I think any farmer at that time sure could use the subsidy payments," said Wilder who says he got the money when times were bad.
A bill to put an income cap on farm subsidies failed in Congress earlier this summer.
