By J. Larry Miller
Drought breaking rains continue to replenish ponds and reservoirs and make feeding cattle difficult. Rain is one thing but ice is another and we certainly experience that last week. The weather has been very disagreeable these last few days but spring is on the way.
Larry Miller, executive director Franklin County Farm Bureau
The National Ag Statistics Service has put the average corn yield in Franklin County at 30.1 bushels per acre and soybeans at 27.2 bu. This makes the corn yield the lowest in the county since 1954 which was 21 bushels per acre, the lowest in 54 years. Soybean yield were the lowest since 2007. A quick check of Franklin County corn and soybean yields put us at about the 3rd lowest in the state.
HB 2651 (Rep. Mautino) has been introduced to limit value changes of all Farmland Productivity Index (PI) soils to 10% of Illinois’ median cropland soil PI. Currently, each individual PI is limited to a growth rate of 10% from its prior year. The median farmland soil PI in Illinois is PI 111. This change would impact the 2014 assessed values for taxes payable in 2015. Illinois Farm Bureau supports HB 2651.
In 1977 the Farm Land Assessment Law came into affect in Illinois and from that point farmland was assessed based on a productivity index rather than market value approach in assessments. To determine the assessment of individual soil types a formula based on commodity prices, non-land production costs; such as – seed, fertilizer and fuel, and farm mortgage interest rates are used to calculate a value of net-land income. This formula has been used successfully but in 1987 a limit of 10% of increase or decrease in the assessment caused the formula to skew the values.
Mortgage rates have decreased, commodity process have increased and has caused a rapid increase in the productivity in each soil group. But the limit of 10% caused the actual assessed value to progress slower than the actual values.
The Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) came to the Illinois Farm Bureau (ILFB)in the spring of 2012 and expressed concern over the values being assessed and the actual assessments applied to farmland which were skewed by the 10% limit. The IDOR views the ILFB as the caretaker of the Farm Land Assessment law. The ILFB recognized that the Farm Land Assessment Law could be in jeopardy unless changes were made to address the disparity from actual values to the certified values. Therefore, the lesser of two evils were embraced and ILFB is supporting HB 2651.
This is a complicated and very political issue. Speaker Mike Madigan would like for the Farm Land Assessment Law to be abolished and land assessed on market value which would be devastating for farmers and affect land prices negatively. If you have questions on this issue please feel free to call me and I will provide more information.
The Franklin County Young Leaders are currently taking orders for smoked pork loin. These will be ready to pick up on March 28, the Thursday before Easter. ½ loin – $30 full – $45. For more information please call 435-3616. Proceeds from the sale will be used to provide a college scholarship to a Franklin County student.
Remember we are farmers working together. If we can help let us know.
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.