Introduced
by
To authorize tax breaks for owners of farmland who enter it into special agricultural districts to keep that farmland in agricultural use, if the local government agrees to participate, and had created or updated a comprehensive land use plan in the previous five years. Property owners could claim a tax credit against either a state business tax or the income tax, equal to the amount that property taxes on farmland subject to an agricultural district contract exceed $5 per acre, based on the local property tax millage. Participating property owners would have to enter into 20-year agricultural district contracts (renewable for 10 years.) The bill contains provisions allowing for the early withdrawal of farmland, with assessments to be levied against property owners, and for the relinquishment of land from contracts, with credits to be repaid with interest. Only 200,000 acres statewide could be entered each year, and the program would only last six years.
Referred to the Committee on Agriculture
