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U MICHIGAN 0% J, ` I Covering the poly :les, practices and initiatives that save farmland and open space Since 1990 a Deborah Bowers, Editor After tough legislative session, counties gear up for grants LANSING, MI — Many Michigan farmers and local officials are battling an undercurrent of disap- pointment and, for some, disgust, with state legislators and farm bureau leaders who failed to back a bill this spring to make development pay for farmland preservation. But over the summer, local farmland protection efforts have also stayed afloat, hoping to create local programs to take advantage of a bill that did pass, one that will restructure the state farmland easement program. Despite a tough fight over establishing use value assessment for agricultural land that left Michigan still without it (see FPR, June 2000), the legislature did pass House Bill 5780, creating the Agricultural Preservation Fund, P. A. 262. Beginning Oct. 1, funding and administration of the state farmland preservation program will be transferred from the Department of Natural Resources to the Department of Agriculture under P. A. 262. Purchasing easements just since 1997, the program is down to $5 million in easement funds - less than half of its starting money, with 6,000 to 8,000 acres preserved, according to director Rich Harlow. "We expect to have 12,000 acres by Dec. 30," he said. But not much new easement activity will likely occur while the program is busy revamping its policies and procedures. Following appointments to a seven - member Agricultural Preservation Fund Board, the new Department of Agriculture section will receive funding from the program's original source — cancellation of 10 -year farmland preservation agreements. A new funding source created by the Agricultural Recapture Tax Act, a bill separate from the use value assessment issue, will not provide funding to the program until tax benefits received under it accrue and are then relinquished by landowners for development purposes. It may be many years before this fund- ing source provides any significant amount of money for the program. Grants format, installment purchases The most significant change in the program is in the way money for easements will be allocated, and why localities are trying to get in shape: grants to localities will now be the format for easement purchase, although state - processed easements will still be an option. To qualify, localities must adopt a purchase of development rights program, with application please turn to page 2 Volume 10, Number 10 Sept. 2000 inside this issue ... Pa. makes IPA available statewide . ............................... p. 4 Federal funds are tied up; USDA holds forums ........... p. 5 Book review: Land ownership- count the ways .......... p: 6 Legislativebriefs ............................. ............................... p. 6,7 Farmland Preservation Report is publishad 10 times per year. Subscription rata of , 185 inc!udes index and hotline service. Editorial and Bowers circulation officas: 900 LaGrange Rd., Street, Maryland 21 154 - r � 2 -27 � � ^1^ P ubfishing, Inc, (`.1i) 09� -108 ISoi�1; 10 0 S�fo. 0) 2000 by Bowers Publishing, Inc. Reproduction in any form, or forwarding of this material electronically without permission from the publisher is prohibited.