These days I can’t leave the house without someone saying to me “Hey, And-uh-shay, sorry if I’m pronouncing that wrong, when is someone going to do something about the state’s 2,000-acre limit on tax breaks for farms?”
That’s when I say to them, “It’s ANN-dee-sheh. The sheh part is the same vowel sound as the first syllable of shepherd, pepper and also leper. You can call me Andy if you prefer. And there’s a proposed amendment to the state constitution on the 2026 general election ballot.”
On our ballots it will read:
I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t pass 2-to-1. “Protecting family farmland” and “bona fide conservation” are crafted to sound like nice things, so nice people think a “yes” vote is a yes for family farms and conservation.
I’ll be voting no. Not because I’m an awful person. I should clarify: I may well be an awful person, but that’s not the reason I’m voting no.
I’m voting no because voting yes is a tax cut for wealthy people that will deprive county governments of revenue they need to operate schools, maintain parks, surveil exes using Flock cameras, etc.
“Assessment and taxation as a bona fide conservation use property” is a jargon-y way of saying that a property owner is taxed 60% less if the land is used for agriculture (food, timber, etc.). Raising the maximum acreage from 2,000 to 4,000 acres is a property tax cut for people who own 4,000 acres of land.
The average farm in Georgia in 2022 was 253 acres. The median size was 70. A 2,000-acre farm is large. A 4,000-acre farm is huge. 4,000 acres is larger than Decatur, Norcross or Chamblee. These are “family farms” in the same way that Tara and Downton Abbey are family farms. And who was that nice man with the long hair, Louis Fourteen I think his name was. Didn’t he own a family farm called France?
Voting yes is voting to slash property taxes for the state’s largest landowners. I say no. I’d say hell no if the ballot were paper.