MREA Executive Director Fred Nolan will speak to farmers and other community members of Maple River on the upcoming legislative session this week at a community meeting organized by the school district.
Nolan will share how upcoming legislation could affect the school district and agricultural land taxes. He will outline the Ag2School tax credit aimed at helping address the facility fallout issue in Greater Minnesota. Ag2School would provide a credit against agricultural land property taxes equal to 40 percent of the school general debt service tax. Eighty-five percent of the credit will be funded through a state appropriation and the remaining 15 percent will be funded through a uniform statewide tax applied to all agricultural land.
View Ag2School Part 1 View Ag2School Part 2
MREA has been working with the Farm Bureau’s Property Tax Task Force and has met with the Farmer’s Union to share a package deal that is aimed at accomplishing several goals between the respective organizations. Those goals include:
- Easing the tax burden on agricultural production land for school bonds and facility maintenance
- Addressing representation issues for the farm community when it comes to passage of school bonds
- Giving rural school boards additional long term maintenance levy authority
- Equalizing the levy impact of long term maintenance levy authority to smooth out tax impacts
MREA developed the well-rounded proposal called “Ag2School F” and it encompasses two solutions: one for school facility bonds, and another for long term maintenance levy authority.
Interested in having MREA speak with your farming community? Contact us today.