Land Assessment Bill Makes it Out of Committee

Posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Yesterday a state House committee has approved a bill that would make some major changes in the way farmland is valued for property tax purposes.

The current system, bases assessments on the selling price of comparable property. Supporters of House Bill 1005 say the current system is broken.

The new bill would value agricultural land based on its ability to produce agricultural income. The proposed new system would not be put in place until studies are completed on the details of the plan.

Paul Johnson is an SDSU extension agronomist for Moody County,he says the bill is an attempt to create equality in taxation.

County assessors from across the state say they oppose the measure because they would rather continue using the current valuation system. Johnson says those counties could incur some added costs.

Johnson also says it could be weeks before a final version of the bill takes shape.