Tax man cometh County plans to collect

By LARRY HILLIARD
Ledger Staff Writer

Something that apparently hasn’t been happening.

Little said owners of about 1,000 properties have improperly received an agricultural use exemption. According to state law, in order for property to earn that exemption, it must be at least five acres if timber is grown on it. That minimum increases to 10 acres for row crops.

Little said the properties don’t meet these guidelines.

“I can’t explain what or why this has happened,” he said. “But we are in a budget crunch now and I want to make sure that we do everything we can not to raise taxes.”

Typically, property classified as agricultural use generates about $1 to $1.25 an acre in tax revenue.

That would change dramatically if even only 50 percent of the properties were reassessed in accordance with state law. The county could realize as much as $874,227 in tax revenue if the assessment value was changed in half of the properties to 6 percent — the assessment rate for commercial property.

The county will soon begin notifying those property owners that their property assessments have been changed, he said.

There are a total of about 28,500 properties in the county.