Editorial: Current Use support defies veto

Posted on May 20, 2010 |

• Editorial

By Angelo Lynn

As Gov. Douglas contemplates vetoes of last-minute bills passed by the Legislature, many of his supporters over the past eight years are appealing for his support of H.485, a bill that reforms the Current Use law. Douglas is considering a veto presumably because it restricts a landowner’s ability to enroll the land in Current Use for a short time to avoid higher taxes, then take the land out of the program to sell it at a premium. It is, in short, a loophole in the 30-year-old law that was created in the 1990s when a “development penalty” was weakened.

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