Welfare for the Wealthy: In MD, golf courses are taxed as 'agricultural' land. Really!

[Captain Hilts]

Columbia Country Club in Bethesda paid $34,000 in property taxes last year.

Membership costs $50,000 with $10,000 annual dues.

So, their property tax costs less than the price of one membership.

What a deal!

http://maryland-politics.blogspot.com/2010/01/great-country-club-tax-break.html

The National 4-H Council is right down Connecticut Avenue from the Columbia Country Club. Its 12.28-acre commercial property has a land assessment of $9,628,500 – or $784,079.80 per acre.

If we applied the same per-acre assessment value to the Columbia Country Club, its 44.01-acre land parcel would be assessed at $34,507,352. Its total property value including its $7,129,800 in improvements would be $41,593,152. At its current state property tax rate of 0.112 and its current county property tax rate of 0.916, the club would be paying $427,577.60 in property taxes – about six times its current amount. So the Columbia Country Club’s agreement with SDAT (which may not even be allowed by state law) is cutting 83% off its property tax bill. And the club’s agreement enables it to realize those savings as long as it does not sell its land for subdivision.

This law is both extremely expensive and totally unnecessary. All county governments have zoning and subdivision rules that limit development. For example, the Columbia Country Club’s current zoning is R-90 (single-family housing with minimum 9,000-SF lots). If the club did sell its land, under current zoning a developer would only be allowed to build 150 or so homes there. The county could hinder development there even more by installing even less-dense zoning. The point is that other land use management tools can be used to preserve open space – which is not truly “open” when it lies behind country club gates – without giving away millions of dollars to the super-rich.

The state government will be rapidly cutting health care, education and services to the poor. If that is indeed necessary, then the Great Country Club Tax Break must also be repealed.

[joeybee12]

1. Yup, the fix is in...Leona Helmsley was right...n/t

[nichomachus]

8. Which is why she went to jail

Leona went to jail for letting the cat out of the bag. The only proper response to "You must pay a lot in taxes" is to say "Yes, we are drowning in taxes. If we don't get a tax break, we may have to close our business and fire all our employees." The ultra-wealthy will not allow anyone to reveal the truth. If they do, they will be punished.

Martha Steward went to jail because she was too public about her insider trading. Insider trading is how the stock market operates. Other than a few lucky duckies, most money in the market is made by people who get some insider info. That happens in private dinner parties, country club locker rooms, in private jets -- sometimes with a nudge and a wink. Martha left a voicemail, for heaven's sake. The ultra-wealthy will not allow anyone to jeopardize their insider game.

Bernie Madoff went to jail because he stole from rich people. You don't do that. You can steal from all the poor people you want, but you don't steal from other rich people.

None of the bankers who manufactured phony securities and have bankrupted governments -- and people -- around the globe have gone to jail. They got bonuses.

[Blue_Tires]

2. they probably resent paying every penny of that $34,000, too

[FarCenter]

3. In NJ you have to sell $500 / year in agricultural output to be a "farm"

So instead of mowing all of your multi-acre estate, you keep a few sheep.

If that doesn't do it, keep a few hives of bees and sell a little honey.

[Captain Hilts]

5. I'm told that the origin of the law is to encourage the protection of 'open' space. nt

[Captain Hilts]

4. Great to see Sox and Mets fans responding! MD is a blue state. Do other states have this?

I wonder if tax breaks are greater in red states.

I was amazed to read this.

[ParkieDem]

9. My guess is that it's the same

Just about every state has an agricultural exemption in their ad velorem taxes, and for good reason -- if you have a farmer who has farmed his family's 100-acre plot for generations, and maybe makes $50,000 a year, but suburbia is creeping up on him, that 100 acres could soon be worth millions, leaving him with a 5- or 6-figure tax bill. Basically, these laws are to balance the fact that agricultural production takes lots of land, but its owners are (generally) not that wealthy.

It's different from Proposition 13 in California, which effectively capped ALL real estate taxes. However, it is easy to abuse. In Texas, all you really have to do is tie up a donkey on your property and you can deem it agricultural.

[FarCenter]

11. It just encourages suburban sprawl

By sheltering agricultural use of land, you just encourage development to leapfrog open space.

So you get more highways and roads; more expensive sewer, water, electricity, telcom, cable systems; and a higher energy use economy.

If you take away ag land exemptions and set limits on lot sizes you would get much more compact, efficient settlement.

[ParkieDem]

14. Yeah, but ...

then you piss off farmers, and we know how much political clout they wield.

[asjr]

6. Golf balls grow faster there than any

other place.

[asdjrocky]

7. Same as it ever was.

I'm sorry to say this is the first thing I laughed out loud at today. It must have been the "Really!" at the end of the sub line.

[blindpig]

10. Obscene

Golf is a bourgeois affectation and golf courses are ecological nightmares spewing fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide into the watershed. And for what? So a bunch of funny dressed people can chase a little ball around.

[mainer]

12. How should it be taxed? Urban? Business? Rural?

When you're talking that much acreage, I'm not sure a golf course could survive the taxes if it was reclassified as business.

(And I don't play golf, nor do I care about golfers. But just a practical question.)

[Starry Messenger]

13. Well they do grow and raise assholes.

So it makes sense. :sarcasm: