Effect On Farm Taxes (Condnwd from Pag* Al) al aggreggate increase beginning with the 1996 tax year at all levels, including school, township, and city to no more than 10 percent According to the IS-minute vid eo shown at the young fanner meeting, the county, townships, boroughs, and school districts are not allowed by state law to increase their total property tax income by more than 10 percent from the amount received die pre vious year. This increase excludes taxes from any new construction added to the tax roles the first year after the reassessment This will reduce millage. which Kauffman believes only allows taxes to go up again. In every case, the millage will go down, *TTI guarantee you,” said Kauffman. ‘‘They can tell you anything they want about fairness, they can tell you anything about losing revenue, the bottom line is, with out reassessment they could not raise their taxes.” said Kauffman. Kauffman outlined a timetable Commissioner Says Income Tax Should Replace Property Tax ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Fanning Staff EPHRATA (Lancaster Co.) The answer to fair taxes is not reas sessment, according to Lancaster County commissioner Terry Kauffman. The answer is statew ide tax reform. A proposal which is known now as the Gerlach Bill, will be under review in the state House of Rep resentatives early next week to consider a way to reduce reliance on real estate property taxes. The proposal, which needs to go into effect, according to Kauff man, before tax year 1996 (when the reassessment results effect tax es countywide), puts forth a method that Kauffman thinks is so simple. “A personal income tax to ajUL^I MJ xjLw V3f JC/JR*C# Mjgff wU r -rfPlfftjEi Take ’em Down! ■m / i We Will Assemble & Deliver Bins To Your Farm Northeast Agri Systems, Inc. Flyway Business Park 139 A West Airport Road Lititz, PA 17543 Ph: (717) 569-2702 PENNSYLVANIA AUTHORIZED to alert farmers to the fact that spe ' cially trained data collectors, pro vided by Automated Valuation Services (AVS) (the company doing the reassessment), are visit - ing farms. In some cases, there will be teams of collectors, according to Kauffman, which will be mea suring and accounting for farm property. During the summer, air craft recorded property size using telephotometry, with United States Geological Survey maps, to form soil type overlays. Records in the tax office in the county are on 3-inch by 5-inch index cards since the last county wide reassessment in 1962. The new reassessment will feature computerized information on all aspects of commercial and resi dential operations. Now, however, the data collec tors will be stopping at the houses and farms. They will ask questions and record information on a wide variety of items. Later on, an asses sor will be sent out to double check the information. Some assessor “teams” will arrive at replace teal estate property taxes dollar for dollar,’ ’ he said. ‘ ‘And it enables those that can pay, do pay.” Kauffman outlined some of the elements of the Gerlach Bill to 32 farmers and industry representa tives at the Tuesday night meeting of the Ephrata Area Young Far mers Association. The Gerlach Bill was proposed as the result of the unfairness in the tax structure. As an example, Kauffman spoke about a dairy far mer in southern Lancaster County who manages 35 head on his farm and has a net income of about $B,OOO, who pays about $2,400 in taxes. Nearby, an executive in a large company, in a house worth about $200,000, makes $58,000 a We Stock Truckloads Of Chore-Time Bins & Miles Of Chore-Time FLEX-AUGER Bins... Large Or Small STORE HOURS- Mon.-frt. 7:30 to 430 fcjSl Sort. 8 00 to Noon farm* to double-check information. Within a few months of the data collector, information will arrive in the mail detailing the data col lected on the farm property and house. Property owners will have a chance to correct the information. Later on, if they don’t agree with the information collected, they can appeal. Kauffman said that Chester County went through reassess ment in 1988. Berks County went through reassessment last year. Now, there are about 25,000 appe als in at Berks County. * ‘There is an extreme amount of discontent within the agriculture community” regarding die issue, according to Kauffman. He urged homeowners and farmers to coop erate as much as possible. Kauffman said that the law says you do not have to let the assessor into the house or the farm build ings. “If the assessor comes, you don'thave to let him in your house, you don’t have to let him in your buildings,” he said. “That’s your choice. “Is it smart to let him in? Is it year and pays only about $1,200 in taxes. Another example includes a retired farmer who makes less than $20,000 gross income and pays twice the real estate tax of a lawyer earing $500,000 a year in a home built nearby. “I just think it's that important for our agricultural community and our senior citizen community in this county that we have to have tax reform before this new assess ment takes effect,” said Kauff man. * ‘I thinkit would be devastat ing to seniors and the ag community.” Kauffman urged farmers and industry representatives to contact their local House representative to push support of the bill through. 24 Hr. 7 Day Ropalr Sorvlco 1-800-673-2580 || >» MASTER DISTRIBUTOR smart not to let him in? I don’t , “In my opinion, commercial know. It's acuUyou got to trials. 1 properties will go down a litde bit, can’t truly tell you what the right and... agricultural properties will answer is.” go up a little bit. How much? Prob- In late 1994, the appeals board ably not a whole lot.” in the county will be ready to The good news, according to handle appeals. No tax increases, Kauffman, is that the feedback however, will take until the 1996, he’s received about the visits to the tax year. farms so far has been positive, Kauffman said meetings will be because the assessors have solid held in the coming years for far mers to consider options regarding reassessment One such option is a total tax reform, which he wants to happen before the reassessment goes into effect (See related story on tax reform.) The reassessment mandates that as a whole, the aggregate county tax base cannot increase more than 10 percent as a whole. But individual taxes can go up dra matically, in some cases as much as 40 percent “There is absolutely no individual limit,” said Kauffman. “My best guess judgment is that (some of the value of) the residen tial properties will go up. some will go down,” he said. The coun ty commission said properties built in the ‘ ‘peak times’ * of the residen tial building in the late 1960 s and mid- to late-1980s will probably go down, and some built in the off peak years will go up. “It’ll prob ably just about balance. Put ’em Up! Custom Applications FOR FREE ESTIMATES CALL OUR TOLL-FREE CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER: 1-800-673-2580 backgrounds in the various types of fanning. Some of the glitches include try ing to perform assessment for some of the highly intensive opera tions, such as hog or poultry con tract operations, where the equip ment is part of the building. That is being taken into account, accord ing to the commissioner. Kauffman said that farmers have considered the preferential land value legislation. Act 319, or the Clean and Green Law. But far mers wouldn’t be saving them selves anything in most cases by signing up under Act 319. “In most cases, it wouldn’t save you a nickel,’’ he said. In many cases, land value after reassessment would increase, perhaps even dramatically. Kauffman said he hopes to meet with various farm groups early in 199 S to work with groups of far mers and industry representatives before the new rates begin.
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