Here's my newest column....

From the 26 March 2007 Lockport Union Sun and Journal (Lockport, NY)

THE EVOLUTION OF NY’S TREE TAX
By Bob Confer

"I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree."

In some strange perversion, those immortal words from Joyce Kilmer’s prose have taken on a new meaning. They have become a battle cry for tax assessors across New York State. In their version the word "poem" can be replaced with "taxable asset" for there is a diabolical movement underway to tax property owners for the trees on their property.

Under this practice tax assessors, with guidance from the state’s Office of Real Property Tax Services, thoroughly analyze stands of timber – woodlots and forests alike – to determine the market value of the timber were the land to be logged. This value is then applied to the property tax assessment in the same way that a capital item like a house would be. It can now be said quite literally that many municipalities are "sticking" it to landowners by considering a naturally-occurring tree a man-induced investment.

This means of taxation has been at the disposal of assessors for decades but it was rarely if ever used for three primary reasons that have gradually lessened in obstruction over time. First of all, assessors did not traditionally possess the skill sets necessary for valuing timber. This is now a moot point as the Internet and the Information Age allow everyone to dabble in sciences that they never knew before. A little bit of research and some backing from accredited sources can make everyone – at least in their eyes - an expert on any given subject. So, basically, these assessors are expanding and displaying their newfound abilities to value timber.

The second impediment (the political incorrectness of these taxes) took a dive in recent years. Just a few decades ago the thought of taxing trees would have been met with a huge revolt. Back then, many families owned small farms that had woodlots. But agriculture has changed over the years; many farms have gone by the wayside while others devoured smaller properties becoming larger, consolidated operations. This occurred at the same time that many people opted instead for the woodless suburban way of life or postage-stamp lots. Thus woodlots and forests have become larger in scale while owned by less and less people. This offers fewer voices of dissent by placing the tax burden on the few through the Tree Tax rather than the many with an across the board tax increase. These municipalities don’t mind taking heat from a few farmers or absentee property owners (like owners of hunting camps) if they can keep the voting masses silent. Unfortunately, it’s the very people shouldering this increased burden (the poor farmer or the blue collar sportsman) who can least afford it.

The last hurdle (the cost-benefit equation) to this tax method has also fallen. In the past many municipalities would not tax lumber because they believed there would be minimal payback for the effort invested. That has changed. The current market value of timber is incredibly high thanks to the huge demand for wood and pulp in the global marketplace. Because of this high value, assessors and their bosses are licking their chops over what they could reap from such a windfall. As a matter of fact, in areas where it is now being used, the Tree Tax has resulted in property owner’s tax bills doubling and even tripling!

As the aforementioned hurdles continue to fall and tax revenues become apparent, more and more municipalities in NY are jumping on the Tree Tax bandwagon. In its wake it leaves a meaningful philosophical debate: one cannot help but wonder how the government can tax what Mother Nature has wrought. Most landowners do not harvest timber off their properties…their trees are there not for their bounty but for the bounty of what the Creator had intended for all living creatures. Leave it to New York State to find a way to place a value on the very existence of nature itself and reap something from the course of life. It’s an intrinsically evil form of Big Government that sounds fictional but may one day come to a forest near you.