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How do you define a "farm"? In some places, all it takes is a couple of sheep. And this makes a big difference when it comes to property taxes. Think Progress points us to this article in the Denver Post:
Actors, captains of industry, an Ivy League astrologer, sports figures, politicians, energy giants, schoolteachers from Pasadena, Calif. All these are also considered farmers or ranchers for tax purposes in Colorado. They have secured low property taxes through agricultural designations on land they own even though they personally have little or nothing to do with producing food — the reason state legislators originally created a low property-tax rate for the agriculture sector...Actor Tom Cruise owns five parcels of land on a scenic mesa northwest of Telluride that has become an enclave of high-end vacation homes. Sheep graze around the mansions for brief periods each year, according to the assessor's office. Cruise pays just more than $400 in taxes for 248 acres for which he paid nearly $18 million between 1994 and 2002. He pays $11,380 in residential property taxes for the land where his $9.7 million home is located.There are lots of other very rich people paying nearly nothing in property taxes, leaving the sheepless masses to shoulder the burden. Now, for our pop quiz: are Colorado's property taxes too low or too high? The answer is...That's the wrong question. The right question is, are Colorado's property taxes fair or not? And the answer would appear to be no.Fairness is a core moral principle shared by people across the political spectrum. And fairness is the discussion Democrats should want to have about taxes. I doubt that even the most anti-tax conservative looks at that story and says, "Way to go, Tom! Stick it to 'em!" And one more thing: regulations that don't work, or are easily subverted, are the reason we need better regulations, not a reason we need fewer regulations.
