Pittsylvania County in uproar over proposed 20 percent tax increase on land-use program

Pittsylvania County officials and residents are up in arms about an expected 20-percent increase in property valuation for acreage under the county’s land-use program.

The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution during its meeting Tuesday night asking the Commissioner of the Revenue to keep the current rate and “continue to offer an open door policy to accept farmer input on land use and all associated rates.”

Fred Wydner, director of Pittsylvania County Agricultural Development, said an increase in the land valuation rate would impact the county’s 1,364 farmers.

“It’s pretty significant,” Wydner said of the possible increase.

The county’s Agricultural Development Board has also passed a resolution similar to the one supervisors approved.

Wydner said he hopes that the Commissioner of the Revenue, the Board of Supervisors and farmers “work together to solve this in a way that is advantageous to everyone.”

The county’s 29-year-old land-use program offers incentives for farming by ensuring that space used for agricultural purposes is assessed at a much lower rate than other types of land. The county has about 335,000 acres in the land use program.

Today, the county’s real estate tax rate is 56 cents per $100 of assessed value. Someone owning an acre of real estate assessed and taxed at $3,500 — but not farmed under the land-use program — would pay $19.60 in real-estate taxes. A land-use participant would pay far less tax on that same piece of property — $2.44 — assessed at the current land-use rate of $435 per acre. If the rumored increase to $525 takes effect, a farmer under the program will pay $2.94 in tax.

The uncollected tax — the difference between that from land-use assessed value and non-land-use valuation — is classified as delinquent tax for five years, said County Administrator Dan Sleeper. If a farmer stops farming and leaves the land-use program within those five years, he or she must pay the difference, Sleeper said.

The land-use program keeps farming in heavily agricultural Pittsylvania County viable, said Chatham-Blairs Supervisor and Board of Supervisors Chairman Hank Davis.

“If farm land was valued as high as (other) land, it would be difficult for farmers to make a profit,” Davis said.

Last year, the county considered changing the program to ensure that those under it met its criteria. The alteration would have required those under land use to re-register every six years and pay a revalidation fee. The county eventually abandoned those efforts. However, the Board of Supervisors’ Legislative Committee will meet Tuesday in Chatham to revisit it.

“People who shouldn’t be in land use, we need to work on getting them out of it,” said Davis, a member of the committee who grows tobacco on about 80 acres of land.

No one has re-registered under land-use since the early 1990s.

As for the possible rate hike, Westover Supervisor Coy Harville said he found out about it from the county’s assessor. Harville expressed outrage that the Commissioner of the Revenue did not tell county officials or farmers about the increase.

“(It’s) unethical and wrong to do this under the table,” Harville said.

But Commissioner of the Revenue Sam Swanson said Friday the increased rate — which county officials say would rise about 20 percent from $435 per acre to $525 — is not a done deal. Swanson declined to comment further on the matter.

The Board of Supervisors’ resolution cites the county’s high land-use valuation as a reason to retain the present rate. “… The current land-use rate in Pittsylvania County is already 238 percent higher than the SLEAC (State Land Evaluation and Advisory Council) published rate for 2010,” the resolution states. The county’s land-use rate has been higher than SLEAC’s published values since 2001, the resolution states.

County residents spoke out against the possible land-use rate increase during citizen comment at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting Tuesday night.

Nancy Smith, who lives in the Tunstall District, expressed surprise at the possible increase and said the present economic slump is a bad time to raise taxes.

“We cannot continue to tax the people of Pittsylvania County in these times,” Smith said.

She and her husband raise cows, horses and hay on about 160 acres in Sandy River.

Darlene Doss, who lives in the Staunton River District, said she doesn’t participate in land use, but she grew up on a farm. Farmers who experienced the tobacco buyout did not benefit much from the program, but had to pay off debts with the money, she said.

“An increase of 20 percent is like a stab in the heart,” Doss said.