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Should
the Legislature raise property taxes in Anchorage to subsidize horse
farms?
This week the
State Senate is considering SB 200, a bill to expand the mandatory
agricultural exemption on property taxes beyond goods for human and
animal consumption. This bill would extend property tax subsidies to
horse farms, peony farms, and commercial greenhouses producing things
other than food, and is supported primarily by senators from Kenai
and the Matsu Borough.
In Anchorage,
because of the operation of our tax cap, the cost for this mandatory
exemption within the municipality would be spread among other
taxpayers—primarily residential taxpayers, both homeowners and
renters.
In the
Resources Committee, I amended the bill to give local control to
Anchorage and let Anchorage decide which parts of the exemption they
wanted to adopt into our property tax law through ordinance.
Unfortunately, an amendment is now planned to remove this provision
and MANDATE that Anchorage expand the exemption to horse farms
and other new, non-food properties (Anchorage always maintained the
ability to keep the exemption for the handful of properties that
already get it for growing food).
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