Counties take a hit

Local politicians and county officials are bemoaning Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last-minute decision to eliminate all Williamson Act subvention funds this year, and for good reason. Already-strapped counties are now on the hook for the money, and it’s not chump change. Butte County will take a $600,000 hit, and Glenn County, which is half farm land, will lose a whopping $950,000.

The act, which was passed in 1965, allows farmers to enter long-term contracts with individual counties by promising to keep their land in ag production in return for a tax subsidy, most of it paid by the state. The contracts remain, but now the counties will have to pay the entire cost—something that hits rural counties disproportionately hard.

Actually, the state should have taken a look at the Williamson Act long ago. The act, known formally as the California Land Conservation Act, has largely outlived its usefulness since 1978, when voters passed Proposition 13.

Before then, farm properties located close to developed areas were appraised in terms of their potential value when developed, which led to high appraisals and taxes so steep farmers were forced either to sell out or develop their land. The Williamson Act protected millions of acres of good farm land from being paved over.

But when Prop. 13 put a cap on property taxes and limited appraisal increases to just 2 percent per year, unless a property changes hands, the act was no longer needed. And yet it has remained, now costing taxpayers $38 million annually and giving farmers a cash infusion they don’t need. Had it been re-evaluated earlier, and contracts allowed to die natural deaths, this disaster affecting farm counties wouldn’t have occurred.