More farmers opting out of Williamson Act farmland protections

More farmers are opting out of the Williamson Act, which offers tax breaks for keeping farmland in agricultural production, reports the Chronicle in an excellent article on the issues with the program.

In September, Roger Nicholson, a longtime Tehama County rancher, took 320 acres of his 7,000-acre ranch near Flournoy out of the Williamson Act, partly because the land abuts two subdivisions.

"I’m not a subdivider or a developer, but there is a lot of value in that land," Nicholson said. "I’ve resisted before but I’m feeling tremendous pressure from those subdivisions."
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The law was signed in 1965, and has become inextricably linked with its author, John Williamson, then the assemblyman representing Kern County.

Farmers in Williamson’s district complained that the practice of making them pay property taxes for the highest and best use of their land rather than agricultural use was hurting their bottom line. Without some tax relief, they would have to give up and sell their land for development, they told Williamson.

Williamson’s solution was to assess agricultural land at a lower rate if the owner agreed to farm the land for 10 years.