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agree,” added Supervisor Nelson Lane, pointing out that fruit production is more labor intensive than other agricultural enterprises.
“The big problem in Rappahannock County is that so many orchards are truly marginal,” said Supervisor Newbill Miller. Since the assessment program can’t take into account the difference in productivity between a young orchard and an old orchard, he supported taxing agricultural and horticultural lands under the same assessment schedule.
Forest assessments upped 25 percent
SLEAC recommends an assessment range of $70 to $170 per acre for forest land, based on general soil types of poor to excellent. Last year, Rappahannock’s forest property in the land use program was valued at a flat $200 per acre, regardless of soil type. Miss Atkins reported that Madison County assesses forest land at $200 to $280 per acre while Culpeper sets a much higher ranee of $600 to $800.
By consensus, the supervisors agreed to keep a flat figure for forest land but up that figure to $250 per acre.
For agricultural land, they voted to follow SLEAC’s reccomendations. But at Supervisor Charles Estes’s suggestion, they set assessments on class 7 and 8 soils at $250, rejecting the committee’s recommendation of $150 and $50.
“An assessment of $50 per acre grosses the county 29 cents a year,” Mr. Estes said. “We can’t break even on sending out the tax bills for $50 an acre!”
Mr. Henry noted that Rappahannock had between 2,000 and 3,000 acres last year receiving use value assessments which fell into the <»iaaa 7 and 8 soil categories.
“I recommend we delete 7 and 8. I don’t have any problem with the rest of them,” said Mr. Estes.
By unanimous vote, the supervisors adopted SLEAC’s suggested values for soil classes 2-6, with all forest land and any agricultural land in classes 7 and 8 assessed at $250 an acre. “Open space, farmland and timber lands are this county’s strongest asset,” concluded Supervisor Lane. “They support the land values for the rest of the property in Rappahannock County. ”
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