11,710

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chairman of the Committee on State Finance and Taxation as

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well. Because I think the Barrick amendment does violence

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not only to the amendment that I propose but to the in-

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tention of the State Finance and Taxation Committee as well

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because what the Barrick amendment does is to leave the

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state in exactly the untenable position in which it now

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finds itself under the rule of the Alsop case where the only

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test that could be used in determining whether or not to

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grant preferential assessment to land which ostensibly is

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farmland is whether or not there is a cow on it or a tree

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on it or some other farm implement or farm activity.

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Now, I think this is the very situation which

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the committee itself sought to avoid. I would argue that

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they have not done that very well, but it would create or

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continue a most serious situation.

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I might say in defending my own amendment at the

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same time, with the hope that I would not need to speak on it

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again, that the discussion which we have had again this

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evening as well as the protracted discussion in the Committee

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of the Whole on the meaning of this clause which mandates to

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the General Assembly the requirement that if it establishes