Senate Committee to Hear Bill on What the Earth is Worth

A Senate committee is scheduled to consider a bill changing the state’s farmland assessment program, which is wildly popular with those who qualify and much maligned by many who don’t.

The bill, S-589, would change the income threshold needed to qualify for a lower property assessment in an effort to ensure that only real farmers are receiving the tax break.

The farmland assessment program has made headlines many times over the years for the tax break it has given some wealthy politicians, celebrities, and corporations. Among its beneficiaries: U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan (R-3rd) and former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman; rock stars Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, and Max Weinberg; and Exxon and DuPont.

To qualify to be assessed as farmland and given a lower value, an owner’s land needs to earn $500 from the sale of farm goods, wood, or rent for the use of the land for grazing on five acres of property. That has remained unchanged since the law creating the program was took effect in 1964, although there have been amendments over the years.

The legislation, cosponsored by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) would increase that threshold to $1,000 and require a review of that amount every three years to determine if it should change.

Last year, about 1 million acres of land in the state were classified as farmland, or roughly 18 percent of the state’s total acreage.

The state issues farmland assessment ranges for each county depending on the quality of the soil and what the land is used for. Values range between $22 an acre for woodland to $1,100 for prime cropland.

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