AB 870

Under current law, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer

Protection (DATCP) administers the Farmland Preservation Program, which

contains some of the requirements that a farmer must meet to qualify for the

farmland preservation tax credit. Under current law, one requirement for qualifying

for the farmland preservation tax credit is that the farmland must either be in a

farmland preservation zoning district under a certified farmland preservation

zoning ordinance or be covered by a farmland preservation agreement executed by

DATCP.

The 2009-11 biennial budget act,

2009 Wisconsin Act 28

, made numerous

changes in the Farmland Preservation Program. Under current law, as modified by

that act, farmland preservation zoning ordinances certified under former law

continue to qualify farmers for the farmland preservation tax credit for a period that

varies by county from December 31, 2012, to December 31, 2016, depending on the

rate of population increase in the county between 2000 and 2007. After that date,

farmers in a political subdivision qualify for the tax credit only if the political

subdivision updates its farmland preservation zoning ordinance and DATCP

certifies the zoning ordinance under the standards in current law.

Under current law, in order to rezone land out of a farmland preservation

zoning district, a political subdivision must find that the land is better suited for a

use not allowed in a farmland preservation zoning district, that the rezoning is

substantially consistent with the certified county farmland preservation plan, and

that the rezoning will not substantially impair the agricultural use of surrounding

parcels that are zoned for agricultural use. Also under current law, beginning on

January 1, 2010, a political subdivision with a certified farmland preservation

ordinance may not rezone land out of a farmland preservation zoning district unless

the person who requested the rezoning pays a conversion fee equal to the number of

acres rezoned multiplied by three times the per acre value of the highest value of

cropland in the city, village, or town in which the land is located, as determined by

the Department of Revenue for the purposes of use value assessment.

This bill changes the date beginning on which a conversion fee must be paid in

order to have land rezoned out of a farmland preservation zoning district in a political

subdivision from January 1, 2010, to the day after the day that DATCP certifies the

political subdivision's updated farmland preservation zoning ordinance.