Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
VermontCurrent-use program saves landowners taxes while reducing education fund revenue, analysts tell committee
Summary
Ezra Holban, fiscal analyst at the Joint Fiscal Office, told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry committee that Vermont's current-use (use-value appraisal) program reduces property taxes for farmers and forest owners but led to an estimated $55.6 million in foregone education-fund revenue in 2024, with municipal hold-harmless payments of roughly $20.5 million.
Chair David Durfee opened the committee hearing and turned the floor to Ezra Holban, a fiscal analyst at the Joint Fiscal Office, who gave an overview of Vermont's use-value appraisal program, commonly called "current use." Holban said the program "incentivizes the preservation of Vermont's agricultural and forest resources, by providing property tax savings for the property owners."
Holban framed the program as a fiscal trade-off: property owners receive tax savings while the state and municipalities forego property-tax revenue that otherwise would support the education fund and local budgets. He reported statewide enrollment grew from about 120,000 acres in 1980 to roughly 2,570,000 acres by 2020/2024 and summarized how use values and municipal common level of appraisal (CLA) produce the reduced taxable value for enrolled parcels.
The presentation listed 2024 per-acre use values the Joint Fiscal Office uses: $188 per acre for forest land generally, reduced to $141 per acre when more than one mile from a Class 1-3 road; and an…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
