“YOUR VOICE”

Elimination of Farm Real Estate Property Value Evaluations Based Upon Comps

Your home and your land are continuously reappraised for tax value based upon the perceived value of the property and the structures on it.  In principle, this is a reasonable process, if, and only if, the assessment is reasonably based.

Difficulty arises when your neighbor sells property to someone who overpays for the property.  Their overpayment may be because they are ignorant of the actual value of the land, or it may be that they simply have enough money that they do not have to worry about the cost of the property that they want to buy.  Your neighbor, who sold land at a high profit, is the winner.  You, when the tax assessor comes around, are the looser because your property will be reassessed on the basis of the over-priced sale next door.

In the city, this creates the process of “comps” for setting sale prices.  In the country, it creates financial hardship for those who make their living from the land, the farmers of America.

In the city, where this process of “comps” and reassessment create housing booms, everyone is happy.  But those urban residents are not living from the proceeds of their land; they are just residing in the houses.

In the country, reassessment of farm land leads to loss of income since the higher property taxes are not offset by increased farm revenue.

The solution to this problem is an exemption to reassessment of farm land, property that is the source of a family’s income.  Those who are not using their land for production, who are capable of owning and living on the land through other income sources, should bear the burden of their inflationary investment.  The firm classification of “working-farm” versus “residential” land is one of the necessary ingredients for survival of the American family farm.  Let’s make sure that that distinction is manifest in our assessment process.

Vote for a Rational Tax Assessment Structure, Locally and Nationally.

Write-In:
David Moran
Independent First Congressional Seat, West Virginia
US House of Representatives