SACRAMENTO, CA – Last week, Greg Van Dyke, a fifth-generation rice farmer from Sutter County, warned that a flaw in the $12.5 billion-a-year property tax hike headed to the November ballot will hurt solar energy production and result in higher property tax bills for farmers. In his Appeal-Democrat opinion piece, Van Dyke reveals that the largest property tax increase in California history will strip away incentives for solar energy investments and result in higher taxes on the improvements needed to bring food from farm to fork.
Read excerpts from Van Dyke’s opinion piece on the Appeal-Democrat below:
Not only will the ballot measure strip away incentives for solar energy, but it will also raise property taxes by up to $12.5 billion per year—the largest property tax increase in California history.
Every Californian, farmer or not, will pay for this massive property tax through higher costs on everything we buy and use ranging from gas for our cars to food—all at a time when families can least afford it…
The special interests pushing this measure claim agricultural properties are exempt.
The truth is it will strip Prop 13 protections for improvements on farms and ranches. For my farm, that means higher property taxes on rice dryers, storage silos, the shop where I store my tractors, processing facilities, and, as indicated earlier, the solar panels we installed to provide clean renewable power to our operation…
This increased property tax burden will be added on just about every step of production, from when our rice leaves the field to the mill and then again when it hits the grocery store shelf.
Sadly, not only will the proposed property tax increase hurt consumers, but it will also penalize investments in renewable energy.
Read the full opinion-piece on the Appeal-Democrat’s website here (paywall) and learn more about the flaws in the $12.5 billion-a-year property tax proposition here.
###
ABOUT CALIFORNIANS TO SAVE PROP 13 AND STOP HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES
Californians to Save Prop 13 and Stop Higher Property Taxes, a bipartisan coalition of homeowners, taxpayers, and businesses, has been fighting to protect Prop 13 and oppose a split-roll property tax for more than a decade. For more information, please visit www.StopHigherPropertyTaxes.org.