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While land-use taxation has been a cornerstone of regional ■planning and land-use policies for a number of years, especially |in Fauquier, the multitude of attacks and the venom launched against the system gives one pause.
Is the policy still viable, more and more people are asking. Given the urban growth pressures that are increasingly exerting their influence, this may be a policy that has outlived its usefulness, they suggest.
On another level, the state is being urged to look at the program. House Joint Resolution 669, passed by the General Assembly, will initiate a two-year study of “the extent of use and fairness of the Commonwealth’s various ‘land use’ tax programs,” with an interim report due no later than Nov. 1.
The Piedmont Environmental Council, which does an admirable job of tracking these things, worries that the HJR 669 study “might develop a mind of its own and respond in unforeseen ways to public perceptions of abuse within the use value taxation program.”
Land use taxation has, more than any other single item, holds ruinous urbanizing forces at bay and helps maintain a realtively clean line between the urban and rural. While it may be appropriate to revisit the policy, any substantive revision is unwarranted.
That includes the decision of this county Board of Supervisors last October to remove open space as a catagory for land use eligibility, a decision that we find abhorrent in its short-sightedness.
From every corner, the land-use value tax classification for farm land in agricultural use is defended by even the most vociferous critics. How'ever, they have focused on open space and forest lands, w hich have been identified as likely and logical targets. — Open space and forest lands, however, contribute as much to the quality of rural life as the working farm, and are equally worthy of protection. In addition to their aesthetic value, they also serve as environmental buffers for our watersheds, for example.
We suggest instead that the counties direct their efforts at delinquent tax collection rather than attacking the land use program. As one Fauquier speaker pointed out last week, the multi-million shortfall in the schools’ budget there could be covered if the treasury could only recover the delinquent real estate and personal property taxes owed the county.
We applaud and encourage every collection measure, including the sale of property long in arrears, that will afford opportunities to raise funds while leaving the land-use tax — a real benefit to all taxpayers — intact.
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