Post by Logan on Feb 22, 2016 1:32:34 GMT -6
10-acre lawns get benefit meant for working Fayette County farms
Ed Hastie grew up on a farm in Montgomery County and always wanted to live in the country. But he became a lawyer, not a farmer, so in 1978, he and his wife bought a 10-acre lot in southern Fayette County.
“My purpose was to be able to build a home in the country,” he said. “I have no interest whatsoever in raising a crop.”
Nonetheless, Hastie’s $466,000 property on Ashley Woods Road gets a tax exemption designed to preserve working farms, cutting the taxable value of his land by $194,500 last year and his tax bill to $2,425.06. Hastie gets the tax break because any property of 10 acres or more in Fayette County that is capable of being farmed automatically qualifies, regardless of how the land is used.
That means millions of tax dollars that could be used for schools and libraries are being forfeited to preserve land that might never be farmed again.
Read more here: www.kentucky.com/news/local/watchdog/article61658432.html
Ed Hastie grew up on a farm in Montgomery County and always wanted to live in the country. But he became a lawyer, not a farmer, so in 1978, he and his wife bought a 10-acre lot in southern Fayette County.
“My purpose was to be able to build a home in the country,” he said. “I have no interest whatsoever in raising a crop.”
Nonetheless, Hastie’s $466,000 property on Ashley Woods Road gets a tax exemption designed to preserve working farms, cutting the taxable value of his land by $194,500 last year and his tax bill to $2,425.06. Hastie gets the tax break because any property of 10 acres or more in Fayette County that is capable of being farmed automatically qualifies, regardless of how the land is used.
That means millions of tax dollars that could be used for schools and libraries are being forfeited to preserve land that might never be farmed again.
Read more here: www.kentucky.com/news/local/watchdog/article61658432.html