Changes in assessments of agricultural land are impacting local communities’ tax revenues. Ron Gifford with the Starke County Economic Development Foundation shared some statistics with the Hamlet Town Council Wednesday.
“In the county, the agricultural assessments were down $765,702 in 2018. Homesteads went up $968,915,” Gifford said. “Another thing that’s happening throughout the county is the tax caps are suddenly starting to rear their ugly head, and those affect, usually, inside of cities and towns.” Gifford said the Town of Hamlet lost more than $32,000 to tax caps, while the Oregon-Davis school district lost more than $18,000.
He explained that the decrease in the base rate for farmland assessments follows several years of steady increases. “They yelled loud and clear, so the legislature heard them,” Gifford explained. “So they said, ‘Okay, let’s take care of the ag people next,’ and so somebody’s going to have to pick up what the ag’s not paying.”
Gifford said that trend is expected to continue.
