SB 126

Under current law, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) administers

the managed forest land (MFL) program that exempts a landowner from payment

of municipal property taxes on land in the MFL program in exchange for the

landowner's payment of an acreage share, which is lower than the municipal

property tax, and for the landowner's compliance with approved forestry and other

conservation practices. The acreage share is generally determined based on an

amount equal to a percentage of the average statewide property tax per acre. The

duration of an MFL order may be either 25 or 50 years. Current law also requires

an MFL owner who cuts merchantable timber on the land to pay a yield tax that is

equal to 5 percent of the stumpage value of that timber. "Stumpage value" is the

value of timber before it is cut as established in rules promulgated by DNR.

This bill allows an MFL owner to request that DNR extend the due date for the

payment of yield taxes on the land under certain circumstances. An owner is eligible

for an extension if a catastrophic event caused at least a 50 percent reduction in the

total stumpage value of the merchantable timber on all of the tracts of land for which

the owner requests an extension, if the tracts of land for which the extension is

requested constitute at least 15 percent of the land under the owner's MFL order, and

if a DNR forester certifies that the owner is eligible for the extension. The bill defines

a "catastrophic event" as damage caused by fire, ice, snow, wind, flooding, insects, or

disease. If the request is approved, DNR must extend the due date for the payment

of the yield taxes on the affected land for ten years.

The bill also allows an MFL owner whose land was affected by a catastrophic

event to pay, for ten years, the annual per acreage amount established at the time

of the catastrophic event rather than the amount that would otherwise be payable.

Under the bill, an MFL owner may pay this alternative amount if the land qualifies

for an extension of the due date for the payment of yield taxes based on a catastrophic

event, if the catastrophic event occurred within the 15 years immediately preceding

the expiration of the owner's MFL order for the land, and if the land continues to be

subject to an MFL order for the relevant ten years.