Family farm group wants end to skyrocketing farmland tax rate
The Ohio Farmers Union will continue its educational campaign on the causes and solutions to rural Ohio’s skyrocketing property taxes.
Farmland, woodland and conservation acres owners in Ohio have seen 50 to 300 percent tax increases since 2009 due to problems with the state’s CAUV formula.
CAUV – or current agricultural use valuation – is the complex formula used to determine tax values for agricultural land in Ohio. Since the Great Recession, anomalies in grain markets and historically low Federal Reserve interest rates have put CAUV out of balance.
“CAUV worked for Ohio family farmers well for more than three decades,” said Ohio Farmers Union President Joe Logan, “But, a perfect storm of recent events has thrown it off-track.”
“While farmers do expect their CAUV values to increase from time to time, it’s been quite a shock to the system for many self-employed farmers to see double and triple digit property tax increases. Many farmers around the state have now been through two of these increase cycles and it’s an unfair and unreasonable burden on Ohio’s farmers,” Logan added.
OFU and nearly all other farm groups in the state are advocating for some minor changes to the formula contained in two bills pending the Ohio General Assembly, HB 398 and SB 246. As part of their advocacy, OFU is sponsoring informational sessions around Ohio. The first was held in northwest Ohio in early April.
The next meeting will be held Friday, April 22, 1:00 p.m. at the Risley Agricultural Center, 5220 Root Road, Spencer, Ohio. The featured speaker will be Darke County attorney Ted Finnarn who is the OFU representative on the agricultural advisory board that provides information and ideas to the Ohio Dept. of Taxation. Finnarn has served in that capacity since the board’s inception in 1976. Finnarn is an OFU member and also works with the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation on CAUV.
Farmers and landowners will be able to ask questions and connect to conservation and tax resources. Finnarn’s presentation will address subjects like:
- Why are my property taxes going up so much in recent years?
- How does CAUV work?
- Why are more woodland acres in Ohio – including in watersheds where there are water quality issues – being cleared due to CAUV?
- Why do we have CAUV and why did it work for more than three decades only to go off-kilter since the last recession.
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