Economic Profiles for Corn, Hay and Pasture

Abstract

Enacted by the New York State legislature in April 1980, Senate Bill 8923-A and Assembly Bill 11551-A altered the procedures for valuing qualified farm land in real estate tax calculations. The valuation procedure was changed by this legislation from a market base to an income capitalization approach to represent agricultural use value. The legislation stipulated that a land classification system be developed and administered by the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets. The State Division of Equalization and Assessment was directed to calculate land values for each soil group in the land classification system. The division was to use the income capitalization approach based on economic profiles developed by the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. The income capitalization approach was implemented in 1981. Agricultural use values were based where possible on economic profiles.. Economic profiles were constructed for corn and hay grown in 1979 and the 1975-1979 five-year average and were conveyed to the State Division of Equalization and Assessment. Economic profiles for fruit, Long Island potatoes and vegetables grown on muckland were also constructed and conveyed to the State Division of Equalization and Assessment. The purpose of this bulletin is to explain how economic profiles for corn and hay were constructed for 1980 and the five-year average, 1976-1980. A description of the construction of one economic profile using a series of tables that contain the most important parameters utilized dominates the discussion. In this document, the term ''economic profiles" refers to the information required to determine the return to land for one high- or low-lime soil group.