California Suspends Land Conservation Program, Slams Counties
(DBaron photo.)
Financially-strapped California cut a popular conservation program, the Williamson Act. The act funds counties to contract with landowners to provide property tax relief for keeping their agricultural or wildlife land undeveloped for a minimum of ten years. Many farmers say they wouldn't be able to continue farming without property tax relief.
What California did could be considered insidious or brilliant, depending on your point of view: they didn't actually cancel the program, they just suspended payments. That means all contracts between counties and landowners are still binding— counties still have to provide tax relief even though the State won't reimburse them for the cost.
Some counties have elected to continue the program even without funding, but others are canceling all new contracts. In these financially difficult times, many counties will struggle with this unexpected burden from an irreewsponsible State government. Says the Santa Ynez Valley Journal,
"“Santa Barbara County takes in about $112 million in property taxes because of expensive development... So $600,000 isn’t a hard blow. But Glenn County was cut off at the knees when they lost almost a million out of a total property tax take of $5 million. That’s a 20 percent loss.”
Say goodbye to more small farmers...
This makes me want to cry. Living in Michigan, I worry about the possibility of what's left of our public lakeshore being sold to private interests.
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