Indiana Senate committee revises CAFO bill

Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, the bill’s author, said she was told the bill would not have to go through appropriations despite the amendment.

The bill had come under fire over concerns it will remove local authority. Leising had said the purpose of the bill was to address moratoriums already in place on new livestock farms, but she said she was unable to determine how many counties had actually imposed such restrictions.

The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration.

The committee also passed another Leising-authored bill, but Senate Bill 405 will be recommitted to the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee for further review.

SB 405 addresses assessment of agricultural land.

“This might start to solve the farm land assessment and property tax problems for people in our state that are owners of farmland,” Leising said.

Leising pointed out that there are three factors to determining the value of farmland: the influence factor, which looks at whether ground is covered with woodland, subject to flood plain, or similar factors; the soil productivity factor, which compares and relates ranks from one soil to another; and the base formula, which dictates property taxes.

The bill would leave the soil productivity factor as it’s been since 1979; impose a one-year freeze on the base rate; and require an assessor to prove by a preponderance of evidence that a parcel is not eligible for assessment as agricultural land.