A warm March and a spring frost may have damaged as many as three million acres of crops in New York. A Lake Erie Regional Research Lab estimates half of the state's apple crops were lost.

Several state legislators created the "Family Farmers and Apple Growers Relief Act" to allow farmers to claim a tax credit worth 35 percent of their losses.

Lawmakers target 700 family farms, which they say are responsible for as many as 17,000 jobs and $233 million in business.