HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93010_1238rannland has both an economic value and an aesthetic value to Iredell Coun(v. Studies
across the nation indicate that residential land use is a net tax loss to counties while faun land
use is a net tax gain to counties. On average, fn- every dollar that is collected from residential
land, a county spends one dollen and sixteen cents, and for every dollar that is collected from
farmland a count, spends only thirty-six cents. tFithow farnt use evaluation, farmers could not
continue to faun in Iredell County.
Mr. Hall then mentioned the following grievances that he, and other fanners,
had about the county's tax department.
a. The tax administrator and his staff have undertaken steps outside statutory
authority to enforce tax law issues.
b. The tax administrator and his staff are imposing unreasonable standards for
qualifying for farm and forest use tax evaluation (requiring full tax returns
from individuals instead of the Schedule F).
c. The tax administrator and his staff are requiring taxpayers to obtain legal
counsel to protect legal rights guaranteed by state statutes.
d. The tax administrator and his staff are using their own interpretation of the
state statutes and not securing advice from the Iredell County attorney.
e. The tax administrator's staff have been rude, arrogant, and abusive.
Mr. Hall then made several suggestions on how the grievances could be
corrected.
(Approximately 75-100 people attended the meeting with Mr. Hall.)
Chairman Johnson said that in the past nine years while he served on the board,
efforts had always been made to insure the viability of the farming community. He
mentioned that this year, during the revaluation process, for the first time the board had
been allowed to develop a policy that would give the greatest advantage, from a tax
standpoint, to the farmers. Johnson continued by saying during the revaluation process,
the board had adopted a policy that made the property taxes on the farming community
as low as possible by statute. Mr. Johnson said one rumor that was repeatedly being
circulated was that the board of commissioners had hired someone in the tax office to
eliminate the farm use application. He said this was untrue, and he had never heard any
commissioner voicing any animosity towards the farming community. Johnson
concluded his remarks by saying rude and impolite behavior by county employees
would not be tolerated, and the tax administrator had been asked to develop a standard
operating procedure.
Commissioner Williams then made the following remarks.
"I spent a good part of the summer talking to farmers in the county about the
farm use and the administration of it. In most cases, the farmers were my friends at the
outset, and they still are my friends. However, the one thing they all asked was that
they be treated fairly and with dignity. Like Mr. Johnson said, I'm not aware of any
board member on this board that's ever made any statement that even remotely suggests
that we do not support continuing the farm use deduction. In fact, this board voted
unanimously to set the caps at the highest limit allowed by law in order to give Iredell
County farmers every break possible. When it became evident that the revaluation
would bring additional hardships to the farmers, we made a genuine effort to lower the
tax rate to help reduce the tax burden for all county taxpayers. We managed to reduce
the rate by three and one-half cents. This is the first time in the past three revaluations
that this has been accomplished. Mr. Chairman, I ov that a task force be formed to
look into the issues that have been raised. I would like to nominate the following
people to serve on this committee: Jimmy Dobson, Bill Harris, Danny Allen, Rex
Bell, Andy Gray, Jerry Turner, Bobbie Williams, Charles Carter, Richard
Renegar, Dr. Bradley Mills, Carroll Goodman, Phil McLain, and Ken Vaughn, ex
officio. The task force is being formed to place on the table any concerns regarding
G.S. 105-296, which is the audit procedures for agricultural land use tax and also to
hear any grievances toward the local administration of the law. Now, one of the