Every state has taken some action designed to preserve farmland with the most widespread action being property tax relief through preferential or use-value assessment. This was the approach taken by the California legislature when it enacted the California Land Conservation Act of 1965 (CLCA) to protect and preserve California's agricultural land. The CLCA provides for binding contracts between landowners and local governments in which the landowner agrees to restrict his land to agricultural or related use for a minimum of 10 years in return for use-value assessment. Property tax relief under the CLCA has been significant. California landowners saved an estimated $23.7 million in 1976-77 and the savings in 1977-78 were slightly greater (California State Board of Equalization). Case studies for individual parcels of land placed under the CLCA indicate property tax reductions ranging from 40% to 90% (Schwartz, Hansen, and Foin 1976; Levine and Orman 1981). The Jarvis-Gann Tax Initiative (popularly known as 13) was passed by California voters in June 1978. Proposition 13 reduced property tax rates to 1% of market value and assessments were limited to a 1975 base value plus a maximum annual increase of 2%.1 As a result, statewide average tax rates decreased from $11.21 per $100 of assessed value in 1976-77 to $4.69 in 1979-1980, a 58.2% reduction (California County Fact Book 1977-78, 1980-81). These reduced property tax rates may have significantly re-