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Friends, I urge you to contact Governor Granholm and ask her to veto
House Bill 4702. For more
information on this damaging piece of legislation, visit http://www.mymichigan.org/article.php?id=207. The governor’s contact information is
below: Governor Jennifer M. Granholm http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21995-65331--,00.html FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Conan Smith Tuesday,
March 30, 2004 Land
Programs Director (734)
649-2992 “A
Speculator’s Dream Come True”
Legislature
Sends Developer Tax Cut to the Governor LANSING– Today the Legislature sent House Bill
4702 to Governor Granholm, asking her to approve tax relief for agricultural
landholders who don’t want to stay in farming. However, the state’s current system isn’t broken – yet –
according to the Michigan Environmental Council. “If Governor Granholm signs this law, it
will be a speculator’s dream come true,” said Conan Smith, Land Programs
Director at the Michigan Environmental Council. “There is only one type of landholder who benefits from this
proposal – and it ain’t the long-term farmer.” The bill creates a new process for
assessing farmland that extends tax relief previously targeted at farmers to
any agricultural landholder. If a
developer buys farmland and holds it for several years, waiting for development
pressures to drive the land’s value up, under HB 4702 he or she would reap
significant tax benefits for speculating – benefits that until this point were
only offered in exchange for farmland preservation. Currently, tax relief is available to any
farmer in Michigan in exchange for a commitment to continue farming for at
least seven years. If the farmer
chooses to develop his or her land before that time is up, he or she owes the
state a recapture of the tax benefit received. “The current process rewards farmers who
are helping the state to achieve its farmland preservation goals with a very
targeted tax cut, “Smith said. “HB
4702 undermines that balanced relationship, jeopardizing our farmland
protection program.” Both the House and Senate rebuffed
attempts to attach a land conversion fee to the bill that would have deterred
land speculation and provided more than $20M annually for state and local
purchase of development rights programs. “The Legislature clearly signaled that
their interest was in helping speculators, not farmers,” Smith said. “Now it’s up to Governor Granholm to
measure whether a tax cut for developers is a higher priority than our farmland
and open space program. I for one
hope she sends this bill back to the drawing board.” ### Conan Smith Land Programs
Director Michigan
Environmental Council 119 Pere
Marquette, Suite 2A Lansing,
MI 48912 conanmec@voyager.net www.mecprotects.org p. 517-487-9539 f. 517-487-9541 |