At the Legislature
We follow the bills that touch aerial application, testify in committee and bring pilots to the Capitol to speak for themselves.
The advocacy
Advocacy
The Idaho Agricultural Aviation Association speaks for the state’s aerial applicators at the Legislature and before state and federal agencies.
The record
What we have won
- 2024Idaho LegislatureSigned into law
False damage claims
House Bill 474 made it a misdemeanor to knowingly file a false pesticide damage claim. Idaho Code § 22-3417B.
The law reaches only claims a person knows to be false. It does not limit anyone’s right to report a real problem.
- 2022Idaho LegislatureSigned into law
Right to Farm covers ag aircraft
House Bill 606 added the travel of agricultural aircraft to and from fields to the Right to Farm Act. Idaho Code § 22-4502.
As Idaho’s towns grow toward farmland, aircraft still have to reach the fields they treat. Pilots remain bound by federal rules on low flight.
- 2020Idaho LegislatureSigned into law
Sales tax parity for ag aircraft
House Bill 442 exempted agricultural aircraft and their repair parts from sales and use tax. Idaho Code § 63-3622GG.
Ground sprayers were already exempt as farm equipment. Aircraft doing the same job were not.
How we work
Where the association shows up
With state and federal agencies
We work with the Idaho State Department of Agriculture on pesticide rules and with the Federal Aviation Administration on safety.
In the national network
Idaho sends delegates to the National Agricultural Aviation Association and the Pacific Northwest Aerial Applicators Alliance.
Principles
What we ask for
Rules that are clear enough to follow
Aerial applicators answer to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. We ask that each rule say plainly what it requires, that the consequences for breaking it be known in advance, and that it be applied the same way to everyone.
The same treatment as ground equipment
An aircraft and a ground sprayer apply the same products to the same fields under the same labels. We ask that tax law and regulation treat them alike. The 2020 sales tax law is the example: it gave agricultural aircraft the exemption ground sprayers already had.
Room to keep working as Idaho grows
New houses now sit beside working fields, and those fields still need to be treated. We ask that growth be planned with working agriculture in mind and that an aircraft’s route to a field be treated as part of farming, as the 2022 change to the Right to Farm Act does.
Contact
Have a question about aerial application in Idaho?
Reporters, legislators, growers and neighbors can reach the association directly. Operators and pilots can join or renew.