By Dale Hart – For Levy Property Appraiser

As I’ve shown over the past few, hopefully informative, articles, the devil is in the details! Most people just pay their property taxes and never think twice because it’s too convoluted. The last issue I will bring to your attention is the deficiencies of the Ag Land Use Codes. The County Property Appraiser has the right to add any codes they like, but they do have to be approved by the Department of Revenue. The DOR has its own set of land use codes that is the basis of them all. Whereas all counties have different agricultural operations, it makes sense. For example, Marion County has five or six pages. In Levy County, we have more diverse agricultural operations than our neighboring county. It stands to reason Levy would have close to the same amount of land use.

Levy Ag Land Codes vs Marion (see the land Ag code charts at bottom)

Levy has a good assortment of orchards, from peaches, blackberries, mulberries, persimmons, elderberries, and blueberries. Per the most recent Levy Ag census; twenty-two farms grow fruits and nuts. With over 198,000 acres of farmland ranging from nurseries to greenhouses, a wide variety of stock animals are raised. That’s not mentioning our world-famous row crops. Few people recall Levy County was renowned for cucumbers well before peanuts. As I stated previously, and as DOR rules state, soil types must be used to determine ag values. Soil types go from one to five in Florida. Farmers would pay less taxes if their crops and orchards were properly broken out into their own categories and not put into a one-size-fits-all pricing bracket. It should be done according to law for the individual ag product grown on that acreage and its production ability, that would save farmers hundreds, if not thousands, annually.

End The War on Farmers! Vote Dale R. Hart for Levy County Property Appraiser

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Posted August 5, 2024