During the 2020 legislative session the KY General Assembly passed a bill that would change the process for obtaining agriculture tax exemptions for farm use. The Crittenden County ANR Agent Dee Heimgartner saw that this change could have an impact on a broad range of clients, farmers, land owners and even small businesses in the community. Heimgartner set out to educate the public on these changes. The change would require farmers to fill out a new form to obtain an agriculture exemption number from the KY Department of Revenue. Local businesses including parts stores, feed supply, and tire shops would then have to have updated records for the tax exemption to be honored. 

Heimgartner worked with local newspaper with a subscription base of over 3,200 to write a front page article about the changes. A flyer detailing the changes was also developed and displayed at many local businesses. Heimgartner also made an effort to reach the plain clothes community in the county to make sure that they were aware of the changes, especially since those clients do not use computers. Copies of the forms were made available to clients who did not have internet access. Many of the people who called the agent to ask questions about the changes either were new to Extension or had not utilized the office in a long time. 

 This community education effort brought in new clients and created a partnership with local businesses to help spread the word about the changes. While many clients were unhappy with changes they were appreciative of the agent informing them so that a disruption to their farm business did not occur. Several non farm businesses also had not heard of the changes and are now aware of what accounting changes they need to undertake.