Logan County farmers should expect a decrease in their taxes again this year, as primary projections for Current Agriculture Use Values show an average decrease of 28 to 35 percent, similar to the 2018 tax year.
Theodore Finnarn, an attorney who represents Ohio Farmers Union on the State Agriculture Advisory Committee and is serving his 44th year on the committee following his appointment in 1976, said the decreased CAUVs should be reflected on taxes this year.
During a July meeting, he spoke in support of the reduced values.
“These reduced values will be used in 23 counties that are undergoing valuation changes in the 2019 tax year with resulting lower taxes paid in 2020,” he said in a news release.
“The changes that were originally made pursuant to the 2017 budget bill compromise which were effective for the 2017 tax year, will continue to be the same,” the release continues.
“These long overdue changes affected the calculation of the capitalization (interest) rate within the formula. These changes increased the holding period assumption within the formula from five to 25 years and reformulated the equity information to a more farm-based criteria that will be taken from the United States Department of Agriculture calculations.”
Finnarn also related one of the big changes will allow year-round conservation acres of farmers to be valued at the lowest of the values assigned on the basis of soil type ($230 for woodland and $350 for cropland). It was also noted that woodland values have greatly decreased and most will be approaching minimum rates in the future.
“This is good news for our farmers and woodland owners,” Finnarn said.
Although CAUVs are changed every year, they are only applicable in the counties on that rotation (every three years), Finnarn said.
The current CAUVs in Logan County will be up again for reappraisal in 2022.
Finnarn said that in the past real-estate taxes “shot way up because the CAUV implemented in 1973 to tax farmland on use value and not on values for other purposes like fair-market value.”
Now, the interest-rate formula has been corrected. “Now it’s more reasonable,” Finnarn said.
The CAUV has a farmland preservation measure, which keeps farms in agricultural use, he explained.
“Otherwise taxes would be too high and farmers would have to sell out for other uses to be gobbled up for commercial and industrial purposes.”