New Law Looks to Protect Hoosier Farmers

  A bill that would prevent a property tax increase for Hoosier farmers is currently awaiting the governor’s final approval. Co-authored by Senator Richard D. Young, Jr., Senate Bill 319 would revert the factors that determine soil productivity to the levels set in March 2011. This is the first bill to be approved by both Chambers of the Indiana General Assembly.

Young said it’s a very important bill that would prevent a lot of financial troubles for farmers.

“Senate Bill 319 I think is an important piece of legislation and it’s going to freeze the assessment at the 2011 level, so it gives us time to really study some of the factors that the Department of Local Government Finance was putting into the formula that we use to assess farmland, and using the numbers that they were putting in there, we were going to have a tremendous increase to all agricultural land all over the state, so this is going to hold it until we can actually study the factors that they were using and see whether they’re realistic or not,” Young said.

Sen. Young represents Senate District 47 which encompasses portions of Crawford, Dubois, Harrison, Orange, Perry and Washington counties. For more information on Sen. Young, his legislative agenda or other State Senate business, call 1-800-382-9467 or visit www.IN.gov/s47.