Current Use

Vermont first passed the use value appraisal program (Current Use) in 1978. Now about 1/3 of Vermont’s total land area is enrolled in Current Use. Because the program helps many of Vermont’s farms stay in business and resist the financial lure of selling land into development, Rural Vermont has defended and helped strengthen Current Use throughout its existence.

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 foresters to enroll their land in the Current Use program. The land is then taxed at the use value rather than the fair market value – so the land is appraised at what it is used for, rather than what it could be sold for at the highest market value. Farmers and foresters then pay taxes based on this appraisal rate, which is calculated through a statutory formula. The Current Use Program includes a Land Use Change Tax as a disincentive to develop land. The program is administered by the Vermont Department of Taxes.

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

Recent Issue History

On May 27, 2010, the Current Use bill H. 485 was vetoed by Governor Jim Douglas. As one of the final acts of the 2010 legislative session, the House and Senate passed H.485, making a number of important changes to Vermont’s Use Value Appraisal (Current Use) Program. Rural Vermont was one of six organizations that worked together to create these proposed changes that would help to make Current Use more sustainable.

Materials

• The Vermont Statute
• VT Tax Dept. Info
• Rural Vermont’s 2010 factsheet on H. 485
• Rural Vermont’s position on H. 485, the 2010 current use bill
• The Final Report and Recommendations on Changes to Use Value Appraisal, written December 11, 2009. Or a one page summary
• 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
• 2008 Report of the Use Value Appraisal Task Force
• Testimony of Amy Shollenberger to Senate Natural Resources Committee on Current Use, 2/1/2008 (pdf)
• 10/24/2007 RV comments on Current Use (pdf)
• 2007 Current Use Report from the state
• H. 540 Definition of a Farmer for Current Use, 7/4/2005 (pdf)
• 2002 Current Use Report from the state