The Indiana House voted Monday to delay for a year the use of updated figures that would lead to an increase in farmland taxes. The bill would stop the use of updated soil quality figures that bill supporters expect would increase farm taxes an average of 25 percent, or a total of $57 million statewide, according to The Associated Press. The state Senate passed the proposal last month. Kosciusko County Assessor Laurie Renier said she was unclear how the updated figures would affect local farmland owners. She questioned the numbers cited by bill supporters, but did note that the soil quality figures have not been updated for several years. “I don’t know the exact dollar amount (but) it’s going to affect each county differently, depending on how much farmland they have,” she said. At the same time, she noted, farmers’ yields have increased in recent years, yields she said they are not accurately being taxed on. She said soil quality figures, which assess farmland by qualities such as sandy, loamy or mucky and which are factored by a fluctuating base value for farmland, were first applied in the 1980s. Some categories were changed by a few percentage points under new guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she said – crosier loam with a slight grade was changed from a factor of 1.02 to 1.42, for example. Many other soil types were not changed, she said. The bill passed Monday requires state tax officials and Purdue University agriculture researchers to prepare a review of the soil productivity measurement for the legislature to consider next year. The measure now goes to Gov. Mike Pence for his consideration.
