Page 6 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 3 - Summer 2023

POLICY
A Steadfast Commitment
How Tax Policy Has Supported Georgia’s Growth as the #1 Forestry State
BTy John Casey
he effort to support agricul- ture and forestry landowners by reducing tax burdens has spanned nearly a quarter
century — including the most recent Georgia legislative session.
One issue: Georgia had — and still has — one of the highest average property taxes of all states in the Southeast. “Efforts to mitigate the impact of ad valorem taxes on property owners in agriculture and forestry first became a concern in the early 1990s,” said former Georgia State Representative Richard Royal. “We allow local governments to levy property taxes to fund their education efforts. That’s unlike most of the states in the Southeast, which fund education through their general fund budget.”
The Start of a Solution
In 1991, Royal introduced Georgia House of Representatives legislation to establish the Conservation Use Valuation Assessment (CUVA) program. The constitutional amendment, approved later that year by Georgia voters, reduced the ad valorem tax burden on all of agriculture property, including forestland, by changing how the state
4 | GEORGIA FORESTRY
assesses land values.
“We came up with the thought of
taxing the land based on its ability to produce a crop rather than on its potential real estate value,” said Royal. “It has been a tremendously successful program.”
Under CUVA, landowners sign a 10-year covenant in which they agree to not develop any of the land and to keep it in its agricultural state. According to the Georgia Department of Revenue, as of today, CUVA provides a $270 million annual ad valorem tax reduction for agricultural lands in the program.
“The program has saved thousands and thousands of acres from going into development,” said Royal. “It has reduced the property tax burden almost two-thirds and allows the landowner to continue investing in their agriculture business — which benefits all Georgians.”
“With many metro areas across the state rapidly expanding into rural areas, ensuring that property is taxed based on its current use rather than its potential use has been critical to protecting agricultural lands,” said Tom McCall, president of the Georgia Farm Bureau (GFB). “With the encroachment of urbanization in some areas and
CUVA
(CONSERVATION USE VALUATION ASSESSMENT)
14,333,995
# OF ACRES ENROLLED
194,883
# OF PARCELS ENROLLED
$271,247,025
AMOUNT OF TAX SAVINGS
SOURCE: Property Tax Administration Annual Report – published by the Georgia Department of Revenue.