Farm groups are gearing up to convince the legislature to overturn a state tax commission decision that one-third of Missouri’s farmland has increased in value.
Every two years the commission determines the value of eight different kinds of farmland based on its productive capability not its fair market value. The productive capability is about 20 percent of the market value.
The University of Missouri Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute studies the anticipated productivity for the next 15 years. The numbers are run through a formula that determines the new productive value. Tax Commission chairman Bruce Davis says a lot of Missouri farmland will not go up.
Davis says, “The higher productive types of soil are going…to go up approximately 29 percent. Now the lower grades, the pasture land, the forest land, it’s actually going down 25 percent….About 65 percent of the acres in the state of Missouri is actually going to go down in value.”
He says the productivity of cropland has increased in recent years, led by corn prices driven, in part, by the development of the ethanol industry.
Opponents have 60 days after the legislative session starts to get the legislature to overturn the commission’s findings.
Listen to Bob Priddy’s story :63 mp3 davtaxva
Bob Priddy interviews Bruce Davis: 14:58Â davtax6
