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15% Of Taxable Value
Tamara Vance, representing Piedmont Environmental Council, noted that Rappahannock may well have one-half of its total acres receiving use value taxation, as Robert Eastham reported. “But that (one half of all the acres) is only 12-15 percent of the taxable value of real estate in your county,” she told the supervisors.
While open, unimproved land doesn’t generate as much revenue as developed property, its share of the tax burden is increasing at a faster rate because of rising land prices, Vance said. She reported that, according to local realtors, “the value of unimproved land has increased much faster than the value of a house and lot or a house in town.” Therefore, farmers are facing “the greatest relative^ pressure” from rising land prices, she said.
To relieve that pressure, localities can afford farmers the benefits of use value taxation in return for a commitment not to develop, Vance told the supervisors. The county likewise gains through that commitment “because development is expensive,” she added. “Rappahannock County is among the ten lowest counties in the state in per capita government cost," Vance reported, attributing that ranking to lack of development here. “Formation of agricultural and forestal districts encourage the preservation and protection of farms, forests and open spaces that underly and determine the rural character of this unique county,” PEC’s representative concluded.
87.3%