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class 8. The recommended dollar amounts climbed by 1984 to $730, $640, $430, $330, $270, $160 and $50 but then dropped in 1987 to $660, $490, $390, $290, $250, $150 and $50. (No figures for class 1 soils are included because Rappahannock County has no class 1 soils.)
While the committee’s recommended assessments for agricultural land have gone down, its recommendations for use value of horticultural land have increased, Miss Atkins noted. This year, SLEACs suggested assessments for orchard land are $1,620 per acre for class 2 soils, $1,440 for class 3, $1,330 for class 4, $1,000 for class 5, $810 for class 6, $520 for class 7 and $50 for class 8.
But in its land use program, Rappahannock assesses horticultural land as agricultural land, rejecting the committee’s recommendation for a separate, higher per acre schedule for orchards. Miss Atkins reported that Clarke, Fauquier and Madison counties have adopted SLEACs horticultural schedule while Culpeper and Warren use the committee’s recommended agricultural values for both orchards and farms. Warren intends to separate the two, however, in its next reassessment, she added.
Supervisor A1 Henry asked Miss Atkins if she thought Rappahannock should follow Warren’s example.
“Don’t put her on the spot,” interjected Supervisor NewbiU Miller, when the Commissioner of Revenue hesitated. “It’s our decision.”
“Let me put it this way: if you have 10 acres in hay and 10 acres in orchards, you tell me which one is going to make you the most money in a given year,” Miss Atkins responded. She pointed out that SLEAC’s recommendations for assessments on horticultural land are based on the same careful production surveys done for agricultural land.
“I’ve never yet seen an orchard in Rappahannock County mako a substantial windfall,” said Mr. Henry, a former loan officer with the Warren ton land bank which serves a substantial number of the county’s farmers and orchardists. “I don’t think orchards are more valuable than pasture or crop land. I don’t think the orchard people should be singled out to carry a higher tax burden.”
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