May 17, 2009

A bill in each chamber addressing Clean and Green and rollback taxes has been scheduled for a vote in early June. The Clean and Green program is a state program designed to preserve agricultural and forest land. The purpose of the law is to provide a real estate tax benefit to owners of agricultural or forest land by taxing that land on the basis of its “use value” rather than its market value.

This act provides preferential assessment to any individuals who agree to maintain their land solely devoted to agricultural use, agricultural reserve, or forest reserve use. With the onset of activity in the Marcellus Play, there is widespread concern that the provision that mandates rollback taxes on the entire parcel should only be applied to the piece of the parcel where drilling or other activity occurs.