Dan Popkey - Ag tax break used by land speculators costs us all

Millionaires posing as farmers will keep their property-tax breaks for vacation lots unless the Idaho Senate cuts through the crap this week.

If lawmakers fail us, more $500,000 lots at places like Tamarack Resort in Valley County and Teton Springs in Teton County will be sold to speculators and well-heeled buyers cashing in on exemptions intended for farmers.

They will pay almost nothing — in many cases literally nothing because counties don't send tax bills for under $1 — because of our lawmakers being unable to clean up the mess they made of our tax law in 2002.

You will make up the difference. This year, $3.3 million will be paid by other taxpayers to recover revenue lost under the 2002 law, according to a State Tax Commission estimate.

Compounding this outrage is that it has twisted a tax policy crafted to protect working farmers and ranchers. What I call the Tamarack Tax Break has its origins in a 1980 law approved by a unanimous Legislature that created a property-tax exemption to "preserve land for agricultural use."

The 1980 Legislature said scarce land and encroaching development threatened the future of agriculture; the tax break was necessary to sustain a key segment of Idaho's economy.

The 2002 Legislature turned that law on its head. Instead of saving ag land, the Tamarack Tax Break stimulates subdivision of farmland for vacation homes and enables speculators to buy and hold tax-free lots
More.