Issues like former prison farms to be dealt with in Senate

For the past several years farmers in Ohio have seen skyrocketing farmland property tax increases – that could be coming to an end with Ohio’s next state budget.

“We’ve had a couple days to review what the Ohio House is proposing and consider whether we can be fully supportive,” said Joe Logan, President of the Ohio Farmers Union.

“We’ve sought relief from the Ohio Dept. of Taxation for years with little relief, but finally our elected representatives are responding to the desperate cries of Ohio’s family farmers,” Logan said.

Ron Sylvester, OFU external relations director said Tuesday that the family farm organization is asking members to contact state representatives and express support for House passage of the state budget bill.

“We are concerned about the Administration’s and some legislators’ desire to work outside of normal open and competitive bidding processes to sell the thousands of acres formally farmed by the Ohio Dept. of Corrections,” Sylvester said.

“We do want the budget to pass the House this week and we’ll try to learn more about state leaders’ decision-making on these public lands in the Senate,” Sylvester said.

Ted Finnarn, OFU attorney and 41-year member of the Ohio Dept. of Taxation’s Agricultural Advisory Committee said what the House is proposing “will return the CAUV calculations to more reasonable values and allow conservation acres to be taxed at lower rates since these acres do not produce any crops.”

“The interest-capitalization rate used in the formula will be modified to lessen the influence of non-farm factors by increasing the holding period from five to 25 years,” said Finnarn. “These changes, resulting in lower CAUV values, will be phased in over two re-evaluation cycles (6years), so that they do not cause any dramatic impacts to local governments and schools.”

Ohio’s farmers have experienced farmland property tax increases reaching 300 percent in each of their past two to three triennial Current Agricultural Use Valuations. While the CAUV formula is complicated, one component, has been adversely affected by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s near zero interest rates – so-called quantitative easing – which lasted for years after the official end of the last recession.

CAUV was instituted so that agricultural land would be taxed at its “use” value and not it’s real estate development value. CAUV helps keeps farms in production and cuts down on unnecessary urban sprawl.

CAUV Increases of 300 to 600 Percent Need to be Addressed Say Ohio Farmers

COLUMBUS – Representatives from Ohio farm organizations and forest and woodland owners will be discussing the state’s broken farmland property tax system in Plain City on Tuesday, April 11.

Organized by Ted Finnarn, attorney for the Ohio Farmers Union, this public meeting is co-sponsored by OFU and the Ohio Farm Bureau along with Mayer Law, LTD of Waynesville, Rural King, Seed Consultants, Crop Production Services, EBY Trailers, Finnarn Ag Law, ASE Feed & Supply Store and the Ohio Farmers Union Family Farm Center.

Finnarn is a decades-long member of the CAUV Advisory Committee to the Ohio Dept. of Taxation. He has worked behind the scenes in Columbus since at least 2011 when CAUV (Current Agricultural Use Valuation) tri-annual re-valuations at the county level began to skyrocket 100 to 300 percent. Since then, many Ohio counties have been through two cycles of their CAUV values going up triple digits each cycle. In some cases, farmers’ property tax bills have grown 600 percent or more over the past six to eight years.

For the past three years, Finnarn, has worked across the state putting together public meetings on the issue. In Plain City, he is expected to give his presentation on CAUV and why we have it and why it worked from the 1970s to just recently. He will explain the modest changes in the state formula that need to occur and inform farmers and rural landowners what they need to do to help push legislation pending in Columbus that would fix CAUV.

Also presenting will be Leah Curtis of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and Paul Mechling representing Ohio forest and woodland owners. Finnarn said there will also be farmland conservation and woodland preservation experts available to farmers to answer questions regarding their land.

Dessert will be provided compliments of the sponsors.

This meeting is targeted at Champaign, Delaware, Franklin, Logan, Madison and Union Counties, but anyone is invited.

Details:

What: CAUV Public Meeting

When: Tuesday, April 11, 2 p.m.

Where: Der Dutchman, 445 S. Jefferson, Route 42, Plain City, Ohio 43064
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OFU members should know that Ted Finnarn has testified twice in the past few weeks on behalf of reforming CAUV to get rid of the wild swings upward in valuations (and taxes). Watch the video:

Reminder – It’s Time to Sign Up

Stand up and be counted for CAUV reform and other public policy issues important to Ohio family farmers on March 22 at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

Once again the Ohio Farmers Union will be spending the day visiting with Ohio’s state senators and state representatives in the home of the Ohio General Assembly. Topic number one in every meeting will be the continuing drastic increases in Current Agricultural Use Valuations around the state. It’s a state budget year, so we need all hands on deck to get the reforms OFU and other Ohio farm organizations are asking for. There’s no better way to show legislators how important any issue is to their constituents than to have voters show up in Columbus.

Fill out the form below to be included in one of the lobbying teams on March 22. Your team will include your own legislators in their visits via appointments made by OFU. A few days before the event, you’ll get an email with further details regarding the day’s schedule. We do know we’ll begin the day at 9 a.m. at the Statehouse.

COLUMBUS – Ohio and national conservation and farming leaders will meet in March to try and answer the question: Can farmers in the Maumee Watershed successfully reach the needed 40 percent reduction in phosphorous runoff without federal intervention?

“The US and Canadian governments along with Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario have agreed on a 40% reduction target for phosphorus into Lake Erie,” said Ohio Farmers Union President Joe Logan.

“While most farmers in the Maumee and other Lake Erie watersheds are engaged in conservation and other best practices, we still have a target to meet,” Logan said.

“If we don’t accomplish this on our own, we’re going to end up with federal intervention – and that’s something we want to avoid.”

The meeting, “Farmers Together – The Solution!,” will be held Tuesday, March 21 at the Ostego High School Auditorium, 18505 Tontogany Creek Rd., Tontogany. The program starts at 7 p.m. It is being sponsored by OFU and St. Rose Peace and Justice.

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Stemming the dramatic increases in taxes on farmland and compiling data on the density of livestock in Ohio’s watersheds lead the Ohio Farmers Union’s list of public policy priorities for the year.

CAUV, or Current Agricultural Use Valuation is the formula used to value farmland for tax purposes in Ohio. Since about 2011, that formula has not worked due to historically low Federal Reserve interest rates and market turmoil. While the Kasich Administration could change the formula administratively, OFU members are seeking the help of the Ohio General Assembly.

“Agricultural property tax increases are becoming an ‘existential threat ‘ to family farmers and rural land owners in Ohio,” OFU President Joe Logan said. “In recent years, our farmers have suffered increases in our CAUV of 300 to 600%, while Ag commodities have plummeted.”

“It’s just doesn’t make sense that yet another round of state income cuts will be paid for in part by farmers – after they’ve already contributed in the form of triple digit tax increases in previous budgets,” Logan said.

Logan said one issue that narrowly missed being passed by delegates was a proposed “$0 tax value” for Ohio’s woodlands.

“Woodlands owners are taking it on the chin in terms of taxes they pay versus the revenue those acres generate. Considering the environmental benefits that forests provide, we need to adjust tax rates to encourage more woodlands. The fact that we had a lengthy debate on our convention floor about zero tax values for woodlands should wake up policy makers in Columbus about the need to revamp CAUV,” Logan said.

Regarding water quality and harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, Grand Lake St. Mary’s and other Ohio watersheds, Logan said OFU adopted a “special order of business” at its recent convention proposing some further action by the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture.

“Part of the solution to our ag nutrient problem is to avoid overloading livestock into watersheds – beyond the capacity of the cropland to utilize those nutrients.  As a first step in getting there, OFU proposes that the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture make an accurate assessment of all livestock operations within each watershed,” Logan said.
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Ohio Farmers Union to Debate CAUV, Water Quality

The Ohio Farmers Union will hold its 83rd Annual Convention beginning Friday, January 27, 2017.

Among public policy topics to be decided by the delegates are Ohio farmland tax issues and whether or not to establish carrying capacities for livestock in Ohio’s sensitive western Lake Erie watershed.

“We are delighted to announce the convening of the 83rd annual convention of the Ohio Farmers Union this coming weekend. Our convention will feature inspirational and educational presentations from key leaders in Ohio agriculture, thoughtful discussion on policy issues and great fellowship among members, delegates and guests. Please join us,” said OFU President Joe Logan.

Delegates will hear from a variety of speakers and decide whether to discuss and adopt number of policy priorities for 2017 including, setting livestock carrying capacities for the western basin of the Lake Erie watershed and making adjustments to the Current Agricultural Use Valuation (CAUV) of Ohio’s farmland.

CAUV will be an especially hot topic as many farmers around the state have experienced farmland property tax increases of 300 percent or more since 2008.

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