FOREST YIELD TAXES 27 



ment of Revenue and the Department of Conservation. This valua- 

 tion continues as long as the land remains classified. Areas of 160 

 acres or less are completely exempt from the ad valorem tax. In Con- 

 necticut the land is valued by the assessor at the time of classification 

 and during a period of 100 years the land is taxed at a rate not to exceed 

 10 mills on the established value. A revaluation at the end of 50 

 years is provided for. Louisiana provides for the determination of 

 the land value by the State forester and the police jury of the parish 

 in which the lands are situated, and the values so fixed become part 

 of the contract entered into between the owner and the State. 



In the other four yield-tax States taxation of bare-land values is 

 under the general property tax laws. In Mississippi and New Hamp- 

 shire the forest land automatically remains under the property tax 

 because only growing timber is exempt from this method of taxation. 

 In New York, although the assessment is not fixed by law or agree- 

 ment, the land cannot be assessed for more than similar lands without 

 substantial forest growth in the same tax district nor for more than 

 the assessment at the time the application for classification was filed. 

 In Massachusetts the value for tax purposes is established by the as- 

 sessor and reduced during the first 5 years of classification to 25 

 percent of this assessed value. 



The provisions relating to the tax on land have not been uniformly 

 successful in meeting the several purposes of that tax. In the States 

 which leave the assessed value and the tax rate subject to change 

 under the general property tax, the objective of certainty of tax cost 

 for the landowner is not met. In the laws that establish a fixed 

 annual fee there is no flexibility to meet increased revenue needs. In 

 some States the tax on land is too high to provide any advantage to 

 the owner in classifying his forest land. In some areas the tax on 

 classified land is actually higher than the general property tax on 

 both land and timber for similar unclassified land. In other States 

 the tax on land has been established at a low rate to encourage forestry 

 but at a rate so low that local revenues have suffered. 



The land tax on classified land must be considered with the yield 

 tax when it is compared to the timber and land taxes under the 

 general law. A low rate on the bare land may be made up by a high 

 yield tax, or vice versa, to give local governments the same revenue 

 they would have received if the land had not been classified. A high 

 rate on land combined with a low yield tax, however, fails to achieve 

 the purpose of the yield tax, which is the postponement of the greater 

 part of the tax payment to the time of harvest. This situation is 

 found in Mississippi where the tax on land has been found to average 

 around 13 cents an acre and in some counties is as high as 30 cents 

 an acre. At the same time the yield tax amounts to only 2 or 3 percent 

 of current stumpage values. Only a small part of the total tax pay- 

 ment is postponed. 



Practical considerations may require a higher land tax in some 

 States than in others. One consideration is the value of the forest 

 land, which may be greater in one State than in another. A further 

 consideration is the extent to which local governments depend on the 

 property tax for revenue. In Alabama only 26.2 percent of all 

 county revenues was derived from the property tax in 1946, while 

 63 percent of their revenues came from grants from the State. In 



