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HF632 would let metro county assessors consider easement impacts on property value; supporters say it restores fairness
Summary
House File 632 (as amended) would authorize assessors in the metropolitan area to factor conservation easements into taxable value where counties adopt a resolution and natural resource plan; testimony framed the change as restoring fairness for landowners who donated easements after a 2013 law limited assessor discretion.
Representative Nadeau presented House File 632 as an attempt to restore assessor discretion, in a limited way, to acknowledge when conservation easements reduce a parcel's market value. “Conservation easements…limit development potential. So ultimately it's a reduction in value, and that's what this bill does,” Nadeau told the committee, noting the amended version narrows the change to metro counties and requires county resolution and a natural resource plan before assessors may adjust values.
Wayne Ausley, director of land protection for the Minnesota Land Trust, said the 2013 law—enacted after a large working‑forest easement transaction—prevented adjustive assessments in most counties and created fairness problems. “Landowners contributing easements, prior to 2013, operate under a different set of guidelines than those that entered into conservation easements after 2013,” Ausley testified, saying some private landowners have been dissuaded from donating easements because of assessment uncertainty.
Hennepin County's Christine Mower, who runs Hennepin's Habitat Conservation Program, testified that landowners often end conversations about easements after learning their property taxes cannot be adjusted. She described the bill as improving fairness and allowing state conservation funds to go further by reducing financial uncertainty that dissuades donations and partial easement donations.
Several testifiers, including the Association of Minnesota Counties, supported the A1 amendment limiting the policy to the metropolitan area. AMC's Matt Hilgert summarized history: a large 2010–2013 purchase led to tax base loss concerns that prompted the 2013 statute; HF632 seeks to address fairness and enable metro counties with growing development to use an assessor tool to value easements.
Representative Nadeau renewed his motion that House File 632, as amended, be laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus tax bill; the committee laid the bill over by voice vote.
