Gring Proposes Flat
Assessment on
Class I and II Land
Four Pennsylvania legislators
spoke and answered questions at
an educational meeting spon
sored by the Farm and Home
Foundation at the Farm and
Home Center Wednesday night.
State Senator Richard Snyder
was panel moderator and spoke
on the problem of growing crime
and welfare; State Senator
Clarence Manbeck spoke on
environment and the problems it
causes farmers; Representative
Harry Gring made a. proposal for
- lowering real estate tax burdens
on class I and II land in order to
keep it in production, and
Representative Sherman Hill
expressed concern about the
increasing pressure in the state
to relax liquor and gambling
laws.
In proposing a new state law on
taxing valuable class I and II
land, Gring emphasized the
“terrific pressure on open land in
Southeastern Pennsylvania.” He
noted that 15 counties in the area
contain over 50 per cent of the
state’s more than 11 million
people.
He also emphasized the high
value of class I and II land for
producing crops. In terms of
comparative production ability,
class 111 land can produce six
units, compared with 13 to 16
units bn class II and 25 units on
class I, he said.
Gring emphasized that his
proposal for saving land
“assumes people want to
preserve land, or else the state
wouldn’t have spent $2OO million
to preserve public land.”
He said , his proposal also
assumes that one of the reasons
for taking land out of farming is
because of high and increasing
rates of taxation; it assumes
there are a sufficient number of
people who want to continue the
land in farming, and it assumes
that farmers want to pass the
land on as farmland.
But he stated that keeping the
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best farm land in farming must
be made ln
Southeastern Pennsjdvania
where taxes are going up con
stantly, something must be done
about taxes in order to keep the
land in farming, he said.
He stated that while the
problem is growing in Lancaster
county, “The greatest pressure in
the state is on Bucks County
farms” where farmers are
literally “paying so much taxes
that they have to pay for the
privilege of farming.”
He emphasized, however, that
anything done on taxes under the
new state constitution must be
done at the state level.
The proposal which Gring said
is in the preliminary stage of
development, has been worked
out with several other persons,
will possibly become a bill for
consideration by the state
legislature sometime in the
future, and would apply only to
class I and class II land. He said
farms with more than 50 per cent
of their land in class I and II
would be assessed on the
following three part basis: farm
houses would be assessed as any
other house; all other buildings
would be assessed as warehouses
and would be assesed at their full
value the same as other such
properties, and the land would be
assessed at market value, and
would be given a “locked-in”
assessment at a fixed rate of say
$4OO an acre.
Under this formula, houses and
buildings would continue to be
assessed at their true value, but
class I and II farmland would be
taxed at a fixed rate which would
be low enough to make it feasible
to remain in production as farm
land.
As an example of what he was
talking about, he said a farm
which is now valued for tax
purposes at $lOO,OOO would be
broken down under the three part
formula as follows; $16,000 for
the house, $16,000 for the
warehouse or buildings, and 80
acres of land at $4OO an acre, or
$32,000 for the land. This would be
a total taxable value of $64,000.
Gring explained that the state
must act on the proposal because
under the new state constitution,
the state must reimburse the
counties for funds which they
would lose under such a proposal.
He said that if such a system is
adopted, the county probably
would continue to collect the full
value of the tax, but the state
would reimburse the difference
between full market value and
the new tax formula directly to
the farmer.
Asked if it is possible to expect
the urban areas in the state which
dominate the legislature" to
support such a bill, Gring replied
that he thinks it is possible, as a
trade-off for something which the
urban areas want, such as
monies for their financial aid
repressed school systems.
Manbeck, who noted the
“ecology in the past 10 years has
become almost as important a
word as Sputnik was,” com
mented on several issues in
volving the new environment and
conservation movement. He said
farmers are “caught between
consumers and ecologists.”
He noted that if the original
Clean Streams Act had- been
passed the Pennsylvania
Department of Health “could
have prosecuted any farmer
whose soil ran into a stream after
a heavy rain.” He said he helped
get farmers exempted if erosion
occured in such instances “as a
result of an act of God.”
State Senator Richard Snydef makes a him: left to right, Representative Sherman
point during an educational panel at the Hill, Representative Harry Gring, and State
Farm and Home Center Wednesday night. Senator Clarence Manbeck.
State legislators who participated with
Hill, in commenting on the
mushrooming numbers of liquor
and gambling bills in Harrisburg,
said he wonders if the bills will
benefit people. “It frightens me
that people think government can
be taxed in great proportion by
gambling and drinking.’’
But he noted that many state
legislators in Pennsylvania are
forced to favor these new laws
because of pressure from their
people back home. Therefore, he
said, he doesn’t expect much
improvement until people in
general improve.
While the gambling bills have
been labeled as a means of
fighting crime, he offered “to bet
that within a year the illegal
gamblers will make more money
off the Pennsylvania lottery than
the state does.”
He also said the proponents of
the liquor bills “never tell you the
Ornamental Horticulture Teachers Heeded, Educator Says
High school seniors hoping to
make a career of education
should consider the opportunities
in teaching ornamental hor
ticulture in the high schools and
vocational technical schools of
the Commonwealth, says Dr.
David R. McClay, head of the
Department of Agricultural
Education at Pennsylvania State
University.
Opportunities for such teaching
careers have expanded more
than any other high school
program in vocational
agriculture, Dr. McClay reports.
This is largely due to establish
ment of Area Vocational
Technical Schools since 1965.
Presently, there are 24 Penn
sylvania high schools offering
full-time programs in or
namental horticulture.
Currently, one or two new
programs are opening each year
with such expansion expected to
continue for at least five years.
Pennsylvania secondary
schools need an average of six to
eight new teachers of ornamental
horticulture each year, Dr.
McClay states. Opportunities
exist in the expansion of
vocational-technical schools, the
normal turnover of teachers, and
the addition of a second teacher
to expanding school programs.
The number of high school
students who received some
instruction in ornamental hor
ticulture increased sharply from
440 in the 1967-68 school year to
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 13,1971
cost of these things.” He labeled
the danger from drunken drivers
as one of the costs which need to
be considered m studying the
proposed Sunday liquor laws. He
concluded, “I don’t think we can
build anything solid on gambling
and drink.” Noting he’s not for
prohibition, he said, “I don’t
think we should be doing
anything to encourage it
(gambling and drinking).”
In commenting on what he
described as a “startling in
crease in crime” Senator Snyder
said he’s increasingly concerned
that the growing amounts of
money being spent to solve the
problem is not getting at the root
of the problem
On the Welfare issue, he noted
that welfare rolls began
mushrooming “five years ago
when there was a high level of
jobs open. Why?” He said the
16,533 in 1970-71. There are
currently 108 teachers in
structing at least one course in
ornamental horticulture in high
schools of the Commonwealth,
Dr. McClay affirms.
Girls are taking advantage of
such teaching opportunities. The
first female teacher of
vocational-agriculture in Penn
sylvania is Beverly Buzas of
Eastern Montgomery County
AVTS in Willow Grove. Sylvia
Buckey teaches similar courses
at Derry High School, Derry, in
Westmoreland County. Both are
graduates of a combined major in
agricultural education
ornamental horticulture at Penn
State.
High schools in other states
sometimes have more need for
teachers of ornamental hor
ticulture than are available from
their own colleges and univer
sities. At such times inquiries
come to the Department of
Agricultural Education or the
Department of Horticulture at
Penn State.
Ornamental horticulture is a
relatively young program in the
total vocational-agriculture
program of high schools. Dr.
McClay says. The first such
programs were offered at the
Lower Bucks Area Vocational-
Technical School in Bucks County
in 1965. Pennsylvania is among
the leading states of the east in
developing such high school
curricidums.
answer has largely been the
growing number of broken
homes, resulting in growing
numbers of mothers and children
on the rolls He noted the latest
figures show over 800,000 of the
states 11 million people are
drawing welfare.
During the question and an
swer period in which some
citizens commented that the
welfare problem cannot continue
to grow without eventually
.making it impossible to finance,
Gring noted, “I’m convinced that
the only way under the sun that
the situation is going to be
corrected is to break the wagon
down.”
In commenting on ways to save
farm land, Senator Manbeck
urged every township to get
zoning as fast as it can as a
means of saving farm land.
As the high school programs in
ornamental horticulture grew,
teacher education programs also
expanded at Penn State. Dr.
Richard F. Stinson joined the
faculty of the Department-'of
Agruicultural Education in 1967
to help develop teacher materials
for secondary schools.
Dr. Stinson has prepared
teacher and student manuals and
handbooks for retail flower shop
operation and management,
landscape maintenance and
establishment, landscape design,
turfgrass maintenance and
establishment, greenhouse crop
production, and nursery
production.
He has also developed outlines
for courses in ornamental hor
ticulture, a listing of facilities for
instruction in ornamental hor
ticulture, and slide sets for use
with the manuals hnd handbooks.
Summer Fruit Drinks
Lift your spirits with a cool,
tangy fruit drink when summer
heat starts getting you down.,
Extension consumer education
specialist at The Pennsylvania
State University, Catherine Love,
suggests using fresh limes with a
new twist. Add sparkling water
or ginger ale, instead of water for
variation. Squeeze the juice of
one lime into a glass. Pour the
sparkling water or ginger ale into
the lime juice and add sugar to
taste.
17