One of the major priorities for the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association this year is getting state lawmakers to pass property tax relief. Soybean Board director Lawrence Sukalski who farms near Fairmont says property taxes have been going up for several years following rising land values. He says that’s led to a large reliance on property taxes from agriculture to fund education and county government needs.
He says those land values are just now starting to drop, but slowly. And so they’re still high enough that when combined with low commodity prices it puts an additional burden on landowners.
Sukalski says his group is monitoring legislation that would provide a property tax break related to school bonding issues.
Sukalski says soybean growers are also asking for the buffer law to be tweaked and are monitoring environmental and regulatory issues during the session.
