Virginia Tobacco Trust Certification Board Urges Tobacco Farmers to Return Completed Applications Before Nov. 19 Deadline

RICHMOND (November 9, 1999) -- The Virginia Tobacco Trust Certification Board, Inc. is urging burley and flue-cured tobacco operators to return completed applications for a share of the National Tobacco Grower Settlement Trust (Phase II) as soon as possible. The applications must be postmarked by Nov. 19. Payments are projected to begin Dec. 30.

"The applications have been mailed to farm operators and public information meetings on the application process have taken place," said Frank Ferguson, Deputy Attorney General. "Now it's up to the operators to make sure the forms are correct, complete and postmarked by Nov. 19." There are several important items farmers should keep in mind as they apply:

• If an operator's application is mutilated, destroyed, or never received in the mail, operators may receive a new form from the Farm Service Agency (FSA) office assigned to their county. Farmers must sign an affidavit to receive a new application and attach the affidavit to the completed application.
• To ensure proper postage is affixed, the application should be weighed at the U.S. Postal Service.
• All changes to the preprinted data on the application, with the exception of a change of address, require documentation from the FSA. In addition, applicants may not add a new quota owner to an application and assign all of the basic quota pounds to that person without authentication of that change by the FSA.
• Any applicant who wishes to receive payment on behalf of a deceased quota owner should receive documentation from their local clerk of court showing that they are either (1) the administrator or executor of the deceased's estate, or (2) included on the valid List of Heirs. A death certificate for the quota owner preprinted on the application will not be sufficient.
• Any changes to basic quota pounds must be authenticated by attaching a memorandum on FSA letterhead with the signature of an FSA staff member.
• A flue-cured quota owner who moves quota to the property of another landowner should attach a notarized agreement to his application showing his private arrangement with the landowner in order to receive his full quota owner's payment.
• Applicants may assign zero pounds of basic quota to a preprinted quota owner, but every preprinted quota owner (including an owner receiving no payment) must sign the application.
• Quota owners or producers preprinted as individuals who have changed to corporate status should authenticate that change by attaching a copy of FSA form #155-C or #156-EZ to their applications.
• If you do not need more pages than those with preprinted data, the additional pages may be disregarded. Additional pages with no pre-printed data were sent in the event that additional producers or quota owners needed to be listed. If a producer is listed multiple times on the producer application, the producer only needs to sign once. Applicants do not need to return unsigned duplicates.
• All applicants must certify their Social Security number (or taxpayer ID number) and their backup withholding status in the IRS W-9 Certification blocks provided. If a person is listed on both the quota form and producer form, it is only necessary for the applicant to provide the information once.
• Because FSA data rounds up basic quota pounds, a variance of up to a half percent is permitted between the preprinted figure, reflecting the total basic quota on a given farm and the total of quota of the tracts making up the farm.
• Chase Manhattan Bank has set up a toll free application assistance number at 1-800-736-7197.

Virginia will receive approximately $25 million this year, the first payment of the nearly $340 million to be administered over the next 12 years. The settlement was negotiated between the tobacco growing states and cigarette manufacturers. The board has retained McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe LLP to provide legal counsel and Chase Manhattan Bank to process and disburse the settlement funds.