Del. Senate panel weighs bill to modernize farmland evaluation committee

A Delaware Senate Agriculture Committee hearing examined SP 254, a bill to update the State Farmland Evaluation Advisory Committee's membership and oversight so the panel can better support farmers during more frequent property reassessments.

Sponsor Sen. Hoffner told the committee the measure aims "to bring the State Farmland Evaluation Advisory Committee into line with current best practices" and to ensure "the State Farmland Evaluation Advisory Committee can remain function for the next hundred years to come." The bill would expand voting membership, add nonvoting seats and move the committee chair from a public-university employee to a state employee to increase accountability and continuity.

Secretary Clifton (Department of Agriculture) introduced subject-matter witnesses from the University of Delaware and described the department's work responding to complaints after Kent County's reassessment. Clifton said the department funded a study by Pinion Global; he told the committee the consultant meets every two weeks and that the final report is expected "right around the May 1" timeframe.

Dr. Martin Heinselman of the University of Delaware's agricultural economics unit described how the current farmland valuation works: "It's valued on a net income basis, per acre," he said, calculated county-by-county using recent USDA data and smoothed by a 20-year moving average. Heinselman said the smoothing is intended to avoid sudden spikes in tax liability and that, in many years, the net-income numbers have been negative on a per-acre basis, which largely produces minimal or zero land taxes for farms that qualify under the farmland-assessment criteria.

Committee members asked whether the bill would change valuation formulas or affect preserved versus developable land. Sen. Pardee and others noted that development potential and whether a parcel is in the agricultural preservation program can create large market-value differences between otherwise similar parcels. The chair clarified that SP 254 focuses on committee composition and process rather than rewriting the statutory valuation formulas; Secretary Clifton and Sen. Hoffner said the bill also requires more frequent reviews of methodology so problems can be identified and corrected sooner.

Public commenters representing the Delmarva Chicken Association and the Delaware Farm Bureau said they generally favor modernizing the committee but urged caution. Grayson Middleton, government affairs for the Delmarva Chicken Association, said Delaware's system "has been very favorable to our producers" and warned that structural valuation (buildings) has driven recent problems; he told the committee that "77% of, on farm cash receipts are the result of chicken farming" in the state and urged waiting for the Pinion Global data before making structural changes. Sydney Grossnickle of the Delaware Farm Bureau said the organization supports modernization but recommended taking a step back until the study required under SCR 106 is complete because farmland assessment remains an important preservation tool for many farmers.

No formal vote was taken on SP 254 during the hearing. The committee approved the meeting minutes, then moved and approved adjournment; the transcript does not record a roll-call or individual vote tallies. Committee staff and witnesses said the Pinion Global report and related analysis from SCR 106 and SB 35 will inform further revisions and the committee's next steps.

The committee did not adopt policy changes during the session; lawmakers and witnesses emphasized they expect technical revisions after the Pinion Global study is published around May 1.