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A Tax Break Till Cows Go Home
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Published: July 1, 2008
Based on the smell test, it didn't seem likely that Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson could turn $20 worth of grazing rights into an $11,000 tax savings.
But Johnson was rewarded last week when the property appraiser's office determined he was doing enough business with a real cattleman to justify getting an agricultural classification for his land for as long as cows keep eating there.
Whatever is wrong, if anything, it isn't Johnson's fault. By allowing a farmer to graze 11 cows on nearly 17 acres he owns on Thonotosassa Road, Johnson lowered the appraised value of the land by 80 percent. That's smart.
Letting the cows and calves eat his grass, essentially for free, saves him more than $900 a month in taxes.
These cows are worth more alive and grazing than if they were sold for hamburger and steak. That seems odd, but so is the state law. The property appraiser must consider what the landowner paid for the land, in this case, $800,000 for it plus a small house. Another consideration must be the terms of the agricultural lease, in this case, reportedly $20 a year. There is no requirement that any of these numbers make sense.
Florida law is quite broad-minded about what constitutes "bona fide agricultural purposes" under statute 193.461. Johnson understood it perfectly.
In the eyes of the taxman, his land is a working ranch even though the world's best cowpoke couldn't raise enough cows on it to make the mortgage payment.
And in the eyes of us taxpayers, Johnson's tax bill before the greenbelt exemption was a shocking $14,300 a year. The only way someone of average means can possibly afford the taxes on vacant land in this county is to either immediately flip the property for development or else call in some cows.
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