State law extends tax exemption

Legislation targets agriculture projects

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Agriculture leaders are praising recent passage of a state law that extends property tax exemptions for farm capital projects.

The bill allows farms to build new structures such as barns and milking parlors without having to pay additional taxes for such improvements for 10 years.

Officials said the program is critical to financially-strapped dairy farmers who are struggling with an extended period of low prices for the milk they produce.

“New York Farm Bureau is grateful that the Legislature renewed the 10-year real property tax exemption for new farm construction that was set to expire at the end of this year,” said David Fisher, Farm Bureau state president. “This legislation is essential in encouraging new farm investment and making it more economical to grow family farm businesses. The tax savings is especially important in light of today’s tough agricultural economy.”

The measure passed unanimously in the Senate by a vote of 61-0 and garnered strong bipartisan support in the Assembly as well.

“For more than 50 years, the state has provided farmers with an exemption for farm buildings to help lower the cost of farming, maintain their farmland and continue to provide the healthy, farmfresh foods New Yorkers demand,” said Patty Ritchie, R-St. Lawrence county, Senate Agriculture Committee chair. “Allowing this exemption to expire would send farm costs soaring and threaten the very existence of many long-

time family farms as well as make farmland inaccessible to beginning farmers. That is a consequence that our hardworking farmers, and New York state, just cannot afford.”

Assembly Agriculture Committee Chairman Bill Magee, D-Oneida, said the exemption also boosts rural economies by encouraging construction work and creating jobs for non-farm companies.

“The cost of running and maintaining a farm is a lot to keep up with,” he said. “This tax exemption is critical in helping farmers update their buildings and infrastructure, and invest in businesses so they can afford to stay open and keep growing.”