Action Alert: Williamson Act

Slashing tax provision that staves off development will hurt rural way of life, some farmers say.

By Bill Lindelof
May 29, 2007
 
[Forwarded by the Foothill Conservancy]

Casey Stone is worried.

The 40-year-old cattleman, who raises grass-fed Angus cows near Winters in Yolo County, said the way of life enjoyed by many of his fellow farmers and ranchers could be affected by the state budget as proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

To balance the budget, Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed to cut funds for the Williamson Act, a program that lets landowners enjoy lower property taxes if they don't allow their property to be sold for commercial or residential development.

Under the legislation enacted in 1965, the state pays counties to offset property taxes lost when landowners are granted lower assessed values in exchange for keeping the land in farming or ranching for 10 years.

The state reimburses counties about $39 million a year to help preserve more than 15 million acres of land in agriculture.

If the governor's proposal succeeds, "ultimately, the state will be shirking its responsibilities to the counties," Stone said. "It puts the counties in a very difficult position with their rural landowners."

In Yolo County, about $1.3 million in Williamson Act funds is provided by the state.

Sacramento gets $522,000, El Dorado $41,000 and Placer $54,000.

"In the case of Yolo County, that is a substantial hit on their budget," Stone said. "Most of these rural counties can't take that."

H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance, said that by May the state's budget situation had worsened.

"As we were looking to offset those additional spending pressures," Palmer said, "we were weighing a few different programs."

Some of those affect Yolo County. Two programs that could have been cut but were not were a $19 million program that provides grants to rural sheriff's departments and $200 million in grants to local governments for juvenile justice and public safety.

"Those were the kinds of the trade-offs we were looking at," Palmer said.

"This was the choice that we made."

The Williamson Act funding will no doubt continue to be an issue of discussion, Palmer said.

Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, said the Williamson Act is a program that works.

"Why mess with a good thing?" she said. "The urbanization threat is great because the money involved is tremendous."

She said opposition is building by interest groups.

"This is a mistake," she said. "I'm optimistic that the governor on reflection will realize this is not a good cut."

Rancher Stone, a state farm bureau director, said county governments will likely let existing contracts run out, abandoning participation in the Williamson Act.

"Most likely, farmers will take a hard look, and if their taxes ratchet up to market prices, you are going to see more ground being converted to ranchettes or subdivisions," Stone said.

Stone's ranch, the Yolo Land & Cattle Co., is on 7,400 acres of rolling foothills between Madison and Winters. The entire ranch is enrolled in the Williamson Act.

There is also a conservation easement on the ranch, preventing development. The Williamson Act gives his ranch tax stability, he said.

The beef from his ranch is sold at outlets such as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods as part of the Panorama Natural Grass-Fed Beef line.

The threat of large subdivisions is not as great a fear for his fellow Yolo landowners as the spread of ranchettes, he said.

"You are seeing a demand for these small ranchettes," he said. "Somebody can sell a flat for $1 million in San Francisco and come over here and buy a 60-acre ranch and put a homesite on it."

And when urban folks move into rural areas, some don't understand issues that come with agriculture -- the dust, the noise and aerial pesticide spraying.

"You start to have ag-urban conflicts," said Stone, past president of the Yolo County Farm Bureau. "That, ultimately, can be the demise of farming."

The California State Association of Counties and other like-minded organizations are opposed to the governor's proposal.

Cities and counties have relied on the act to prevent leapfrog development and promote orderly growth, a press release from the group said.

And given tight budgets, the press release said, it was unlikely local government would continue to use the Williamson Act without state funding.

John Gamper, the California Farm Bureau Federation's director of taxation and land use, said the Williamson Act is the state's single most important environmental protection law.

"It protects over half of the state's farmland, including over half of the state's prime farmland," he said. "The non-prime farmland it protects is critical watershed area providing habitat for wildlife."

In 2002-03, Gov. Gray Davis also tried to cut the Williamson Act, a move that was beaten back by the same forces rallying now.

This is an extremely pressing issue.  People need to write the govenor and their representatives as soon as possible.  I was just talking last night with some folks from CDFA (California Dept of Food and Ag) and they were saying that there are teams of folks going over to meet with the govenor and his staff.  It is apparent that they do not understand the program as they have previously described it as a subsidy fund.  It is far from a subsidy and is designed to enhance rural communities and protect open space and working ranches.  Please write the govenor and let him know that this is not a program we can afford to lose.  There are other places we could be tightening our belt.