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to proceed through the Planning Commission or not.
“It was not the intent of the law that the governing body can deny an application upon receipt” by choosing not to forward it to the Planning Commission, interjected Marshall.
Change In Use
Property that is withdrawn from an ag district after inheritance is subject to rollback taxes only if there is a change in the use of the land, according to Marshall. “If the use is not changed within six years of withdrawal, then the rollback tax is not applied.”
“In every land owner, there’s a little bit of speculator,’’ Marshall continued, agreeing that a longer rollback period would help to restrain speculation. He noted that Wisconsin’s recently enacted Agricultural District Law allowed for a 20 year rollback.
Fraher acknowledged that tax relief for farmers in an ag district meant revenue losses would have to be picked up by the rest of the locality’s populus.
Dr. Cate from Madison’s Planning Commission asked if this wasn’t discriminatory.
Jacks explained that the constitution allows for different levels of taxation for different property classifications as long as there is a valid, legitimate reason for classifying the land differently in the first place.
Dr. Cate insisted that implementation of ag districts could cause serious financial problems for rural county governments.
Implementation la Challenge
Jacks agreed that problems could arise. “A county has got to apply the law reasonably,” he said. Implementation is local government’s “challenge,” Jacks added.
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