Current Use
View Rural Vermont's current position on H. 485, the current use bill.Download the Final Report and Recommendations on Changes to Use Value Appraisal, written December 11, 2009. Or get the one page summary.
Download A Report on Options for Improving the Effectiveness, Efficiency and Fairness of Use Value Appraisal and Reducing Expenditures or Increasing Revenues by at least $1.6 million in FY2011, written September 8, 2009.
What is Current Use or Use Value Appraisal?
Current Use is fair taxation. In order to encourage the use of land for agricultural production or forest management, the state of Vermont has adopted policy that allows farmers and forestors to enroll their land in Current Use and then the land is taxed at the use value rather than the fair market value - so the land is appraised as what it is used for rather than what it could be sold for at the highest market value. Farmers and forestors then pay taxes based on this appraisal rate, which is calculated through a statutory formula.
Why do we have Current Use?
The state created Current Use "to encourage and assist the maintenance of Vermont's productive agricultural and forest land; to encourage and assist in their conservation and preservation for future productive use and for the protection of natural ecological systems; to prevent the accelerated conversion of these lands to more intensive use by the pressure of property taxation at values incompatible with the productive capacity of the land; to achieve more equitable taxation for undeveloped lands; to encourage and assist in the preservation and enhancement of Vermont's scenic natural resources; and to enable the citizens of Vermont to plan its orderly growth in the face of increasing development pressures in the interests of the public health, safety and welfare." - 10 VSA 3751
Materials
The StatuteThe Tax Dept. Info
The 2002 Current Use Report
The 2007 Current Use Report
Report of the Use Value Appraisal Task Force
H-540 Definition of a Farmer for Current Use - 7/4/2005 (pdf)
RV comments on Current Use:
Download file here - 10/24/2007 (pdf)
Get the state’s report here (pdf)
Testimony of Amy Shollenberger on Current Use:
2/1/2008 to Senate Natural Resources Committee
Download here (.pdf)