Pam Faerber has again brought to our attention the presence of Senate Bill 436 which has been proposed to replace Senate Bill 405. SB 436 does not appear to address the specific complaint of residents in our area, namely: the arbitrary reclassification of “agricultural” land to “excess residential” when the use of the land has not changed since the property was purchased by the current owner. This still leaves property owners vulnerable to having their “agricultural” property reclassified with the resulting huge increase in property tax burden.
In place of specifically addressing the situation (which has demonstrably already harmed several area landowners), SB 436 appears to defer solution of this issue to a “study group” to be convened sometime this year (Section 13 (a)):
The legislative council is urged to request the appropriate study committee to study during the 2015 legislative interim the issue of alternative means of agricultural land assessment.
While this might be appropriate to ensure that the legal language is correct and no conflicts with other Indiana law are introduced, the language of the bill only “urges” a “request” for an appropriate study committee. This is pretty weak language and in no way guarantees that the issue of “agricultural” land arbitrarily rezoned to “excess residential” land will be addressed at all.
It seems clear that the language of SB 405 directly addresses the “agricultural”/”excess residential” zoning issue and implements a reasonable, “common sense” solution. SB 436 effectively does nothing other than to recommend that somebody form a committee to investigate the issue sometime this year. Sounds like the proverbial “kicking the can down the road” to me.
Please contact your state representatives to voice your opinion on this issue. You can determine your state representatives here.
