How much is your farmland worth?

NORTH EAST— An agricultural assessment workshop was held at the Farm and Home Center in Millbrook last Wednesday, Feb. 18. Sponsored by the Cornell Cooperative Extension, the workshop drew a variety of attendees, from farmers to town supervisors to members of local planning boards to the assessors themselves.

The purpose of the meeting was to provide an overview of the agricultural markets law that applies to districting. Agricultural assessments, evaluations and tax exemptions were all part of the discussion.

Presentations were given by Robert Summers from the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets (Ag & Markets) and Mark Twentyman from the Office of Real Property Services (ORPS).

Several officials from the town of North East, the majority of which is zoned for agricultural purposes, attended the workshop, including Assessor Catherine Johnson, Supervisor Dave Sherman and Julie Schroeder, who chairs the Zoning Board of Appeals and is the owner of Silamar Farm.

"[The town] does have a large agricultural community," said Johnson, who explained that part of the purpose of the workshop was to keep assessors updated about new legislation. "We have so many exemptions and building exemptions, and we deal with them constantly."

Part of the services that Ag & Markets and ORPS provide to farmers is assisting to clarify assessment interpretation. If a resident has a dispute over an assessment, both Ag & Markets and ORPS are available with information and recommendations to the assessors.

"They’ve been very helpful to the town of North East," said Schroeder. "Most farm owners are aware of the tax implications, but not so much aware that if there is a dispute regarding farm practice or building exemptions that Ag & Markets will back them."

Lynn Mordas, who owns Dashing Star Farm, went to the meeting hoping for some clarification on the assessment of her own property.

"No one could answer whether an operation that doesn’t own the land but is still a viable farm operation would qualify for exemption," Mordas said.

Dashing Star Farm is a limited liability corporation (LLC), and LLC businesses don’t own the land they operate on.

"Land use is the controlling issue," she argued, "and it shouldn’t matter whether the land is owned or rented."

Chip Barrett, who owns Ledgewood Kennels, wasn’t present at the workshop but brought up similar assessment-related issues at the last Farmland Protection meeting.

"When Farmland Protection wants to buy out [a farmer’s] building rights, there are two problems," he said. "First, you have to pay high taxes on the money you get. And second, because of the way farmland is being assessed, the farmer’s taxes are not going down even though they’ve sold the building rights. It’s still being assessed at how many million-dollar housing units can be put on the property. So the farmer applies for a farm exemption and cancels that high tax out. But if he wants to sell it in the future, rollback tax has to be paid for several year’s worth of taxes. I don’t think too many farmers are going to jump on that."

Barrett argued that there needs to be a reassurance law stating that when farmers do sell their building rights, the land becomes less valuable and is assessed based on what’s growing there.

"To be fair to the assessor, the real property tax law is pretty unclear and up for interpretation. But it’s important that we correct this. If we do it right, there’s no reason to have agricultural tax exemptions."

For four years, Barrett has been on the board for the Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester New York Farm Bureau, which is planning to take up the issue in Albany as a proposal for a bill in the beginning of March.

"Once they change, I think that more farmers will participate [in selling their building rights], and it will be a real item that works. But again, I’m not faulting the assessors. They’re doing the best they can with what they have to work with."