One of the best and most effective programs in Pennsylvania for preserving farmland and open-space is "Act 319", the Clean and Green Act. It encourages Pennsylvania farmers and open-space landowners to hold on to their farmland, woodland, and open-space land properties.  To do this, a preferential assessment for property tax purposes is given to land enrolled in the Clean and Green program.

Thus, rather than assess farmland, woodland, and open-space land enrolled in the Clean and Green program at the rather overpriced and inflated land values in high-development areas such as Monroe County, Clean and Green land is assessed at much lower values. These lower values are based on the value of land used for agricultural and open-space purposes rather than for residential and commercial development purposes.


If it were not for the Clean and Green Act, many farmers would be forced or enticed to sell their lands to developers because of the high taxes on their acreage. That's because without the preferential assessment, the return on investment in their property if not preferentially assessed goes negative -- very negative. Likewise for owners of open-space and woodland.

Until the 2006 assessment-year, the farmstead land in Monroe County was assessed at the Clean and Green program preferential-value. In 2005, Donna Asure voted to take the farmstead land in the agriculture reserve and forest reserve categories out of the preferential-value assessment and assess that farmstead land at full-development land value.
                       
Simply put, farmstead land is the portion of a property enrolled in the Clean and Green program upon which the house and farm buildings are situated.  The Monroe Country tax assessor usually considers that to be about an acre.   


The slick and dirty trick Dona Asure pulled off by taking farmstead land out of the Clean and Green assessment is to increase the Monroe County property taxes paid by the owners of these agriculture reserve and forest reserve farmstead properties without hiking the County millage rate.

Keep in mind there are three ways property taxes can be hiked:
                                               
Here is the way that works. The tax assessor appraises a property and sets a "fair" market value on that property.  (What the assessor does is not always that "fair" a value.)

The County Commissioners set an assessment ratio in order to determine an assessed value for each property. The appraised market value of a property is multiplied by the assessment ratio to set an assessed value for the property.

Then the assessed value is multiplied by the tax millage levy to determine the property tax for the property.

For example, let's say a property is appraised at a $100,000 market value. Multiplying that $100,000 by the Monroe County assessment ratio of 25% yields an assessed value of $25,000. Then multiplying that $25,000 assessed value by the Monroe County tax levy or 14.5-mills sets the County property tax at $362.50. ($25,000 x 0.0145 = $362.50)               
                           

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