Agricultural use value taxation and farmlands preservation: A basic inconsistency

Abstract

Agricultural use value taxation has been found to be generally ineffective in preventing conversion of productive land into non-farm uses. Market forces have dominated, but an additional difficulty is in a basic inconsistency between assessment practices based on traditional rent theory and the social policy goal of farmland preservation. To the extent that assessments increase progressively with land quality, they may contribute to depletion, rather than conservation of land resources. Revision of valuation practices toward relatively lower rates on higher quality lands conforms with conservation economics principles and helps resolve the inconsistency.