Sara Oram is right [“Tax Change Could Preserve Mountain Land,” Feb. 14]. I would add that we could actually create farm lands if we could get readers and concerned citizens to support an amendment to the actual “present-use-value” offered by the Buncombe County Tax Department.
In 1973, the North Carolina General Assembly granted each county tax department the ability to consider the value of specific properties by “value in use” rather than by “market value.” This program was created in 1973 and unfortunately contains some discrepancies with the reality of today’s land division and uses.
Thirty years ago, landowners would usually subdivide [land] by 10s. A 10-acre farm [of] yesterday would be rejected [as “farmland”] today because of the space [taken] by the outbuildings and the house, reducing the actual agricultural land to a nonfarm status. So you will need 11 or more acres to fit in the 10-acre agricultural program. Something is not right.
There is a minimum qualification of 5 acres for the horticultural land program, with a minimum of $1,000 allowable gross income. Again, we are stuck in 1973! Today you can actually produce an income much [larger] with a minimum of 1 acre, using sound management. My neighbors earn a respectable income with 4 acres in production. Unfortunately, for the last 10 years, their farm was unable to enter the program. This year, they finally will purchase the missing acre from their neighbor—luckily, their mother.
There are, to my knowledge, [only] three definitions for the use of our land in this program: agricultural, forest and horticultural. What about the simple idea of open space, or a recreational pond filled with fish, or any project nonrelated to residential development? We can think outside the box, can’t we?
I do praise the conservation-easement program and the support by the commissioners, but as big owners are being offered an alternative to greed, middle-size landowners are in for a heavy tax cost. Why are we being punished?
With the support of our representatives in Raleigh (Bruce Goforth at bruceg@ncleg.net and Susan Fisher at susanf@ncleg.net), we simply need to update, through an amendment, the “present-use value” tax program in Buncombe County. Rep. Fisher has a bill ready to introduce that lowers the acreage from 10 to five acres for present-use value.
It will help to recognize and redefine an actual way of sound management … for the middlesize landowner to use their land in a way [that serves] the community, instead of being penalized for not catching the train of greed that is coming this way.
I was 13 years old in 1973 when the “present-use value” was written. I hope that I can see an update by the time I am 80; otherwise, at least let’s rename it the “past-use value.”
Please send our Reps. Goforth and Fisher an e-mail of support for this necessary update.
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