21 



Fortunately this decision was reversed, but in a lot of cases, it 

 is already too late to have some effect. People have made the deci- 

 sion to either get out of there or bulldoze the balance of their oper- 

 ation because they had decided they could not fund it based on the 

 50 percent criteria. 



The second stage of the assistance would be to rapidly conclude 

 the payment on TAP and to get that money into the hands of pro- 

 ducers. Ideally we would like to see that happen within 6 months. 

 We are now close to 16 months since our particular disaster, and 

 we are still talking about a lot of these issues. 



We were very grateful for the legislation that provided for us to 

 get assistance after the disaster, but we really have to question 

 why we were singled out, and I include the victims of Hurricane 

 Omar and Iniki to receive a 50 percent reduction in our benefits. 



This is something that we would at least like to hear an expla- 

 nation of the origin of this and how it came about. The TAP pro- 

 gram as far as we are concerned was administered and handled 

 very well. It got money to us in a relatively short time with very 

 little aggravation. 



If that could be used as a model of how this thing should work, 

 certainly TAP was the closest that we have seen of how that should 

 work. 



Incidentally, the way the program was written for the 1992 dis- 

 aster program, the nurseries particularly and groves also would 

 have benefited very little from the program because of this 40 per- 

 cent rule. 



In fact, I am quite sure that upwards of 60 percent of the nurs- 

 eries would have had zero benefit under the 1992 disaster program 

 if the results were not changed on the 1993, 1994, and 1995 pack- 

 age. The whole reason of having a disaster package should be to 

 assist the people affected. What good is it if it is on paper and the 

 funds are not getting into the hands of producers? 



Our industry is an industry that is going to pull the Homestead, 

 Florida, area back out of the depression it is in. We are the first 

 ones back, and we are going to be the ones to pull it out. 



The third and last stage of any disaster assistance would be the 

 long-term assistance. By this, we are looking at the long-term pro- 

 grams available, FmHA and the agra business industry loan pro- 

 gram. 



While we appreciate the fact that these programs are there, 

 there are a lot of difficulties associated with them. Most growers 

 were totally intimidated by the package when they saw it. Most 

 walked in to that office and walked out shaking their heads know- 

 ing they would never apply for that package. 



They had to put up everything they owned as collateral regard- 

 less of the size of the loan. I don't think most good business people 

 in their right mind would walk into that trap. 



Second, for the IDA program, certainly less tedious to apply for, 

 but we were looking at rates which were pretty much commercial 

 rates, 1 percent above prime. We were promised there would be a 

 better deal on the interest rate, but it did not occur. It was written 

 into the regulations, but the regulations were never released for us 

 to take advantage of that program. 



