Proposed bill would protect forest lands with tax incentive

ALBANY | A new proposed bill (Senator May, S5603) would provide real property tax incentives to landowners who voluntarily place permanent protective easements on their forested lands. State law currently provides real property tax reductions for landowners who manage a minimum number of acres of their land for timber production for a period of at least 10 years pursuant to a timber management plan approved by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Landowners who meet these criteria receive a real property tax exemption of up to 80 percent of the assessed valuation of the lands subject to the approved timber management plan. The new bill would provide similar real property tax relief for landowners who place at least 10 acres of forested land under a conservation easement that ensures that the tract will be permanently maintained as wild forest land and prohibits the cutting, removal or destruction of trees on the tract (with certain exemptions such as DEC-approved actions to address invasive species). The bill provides a financial incentive for landowners to maintain wild forest lands that are important for carbon storage and sequestration, a critical strategy for mitigating climate change; provide wildlife habitat, improve habitat connectivity, and avoid habitat fragmentation; and help New York meets its statutory goal of conserving 30 percent of lands in the state by 2030 pursuant to the 30 by 30 Act. "Protecting intact mature forests and keeping them growing for decades to come will reduce carbon in the atmosphere and help to achieve New York's goals in the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protect Act (CLCPA) and in the 30 by 30 Act," said Claudia Braymer, Executive Director of Protect the Adirondacks. "This is a win-win for New Yorkers, and we encourage the Legislature to pass this bill this legislative session to give forests a better chance to thrive and persist despite ever-present development pressures that would result in forest losses. We thank Senator May for recognizing the need for moving this critical bill forward to conserve New York's forests." This new bill incentivizing permanent protection of private forest lands will be particularly beneficial for landowners in the Adirondack Park where there are millions of acres of privately owned forests that are at risk of conversion to non-forestry uses. Finally, the bill provides state assistance to municipalities that lose real property tax revenues as a result of landowners enrolling in the timber management or conservation easement tax relief programs. Currently, municipalities often make up for the lost tax revenues by collecting more real property taxes from landowners who are not enrolled in a tax relief program, leading to inequitable real property taxation. The proposed bill would tap state revenues collected by the real property transfer tax to provide state assistance to municipalities to remedy this problem. The State assistance will secure the Statewide benefits of forest protection and safeguard local municipalities and local taxpayers from being unfairly burdened by these tax incentives.

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Proposed bill would protect forest lands with tax incentive

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