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operation or is permitting n neighbor to
use the land for raising cattle without
monetary consideration, but instead is
whether the land is actively devoted to a
farm or agricultural use."
Now, our provision seeks to change this
and give the legislature or the state De-
partment of Assessments and Taxation the
right to say what is a farm.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hanson.
DELEGATE HANSON: Does not the
agricultural assessments act at this time do
exactly that by establishing the criteria in
the law by which a definition of agriculture
is made and by delegating to the Depart-
ment of Assessments and Taxation the
power to establish rules for the implemen-
tation of the law?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: The act says that
but the Court of Appeals said it did not
mean anything. That is the whole point.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hanson.
DELEGATE HANSON: Then I am
afraid we may have a disagreement on the
language of the court, which as I read the
case, did not get to the question of the
power of the legislature in this area, hut
rather based its finding on what it says was
the fact that the assessor and the tax
courts had misconstrued the; provision.
Do we read the case the same way?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: No, sir, we appar-
ently do not. I think I would have to sug-
gest that you see your lawyer Mr. Scanlan,
about this, because I think you are reading it incorrectly. He was not listening, that's
why I said that.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hanson.
DELEGATE CASE: I wanted to get his
attention.
DELEGATE HANSON: I was hoping,
Mr. Chairman, I would get some free legal
advice from Mr. Case, but I can see we may
not get along as client and attorney.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: You are safe for a
while, Delegate Hanson. But may I, to im-
plement this, Delegate Hanson, getting back
in a more serious vein, after finding these
old criterias were out on the Alsop farm,
the Court of Appeals said, I now again will
quote you in addition to what I already
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quoted, "This was enough to require a
finding that the land was in fact a bona
fide farm without resorting to any of the
other criteria set forth in Regulation 9,
some of which seemed to have a related use
as a guide in determining whether or not
a particular tract of land is a farm within
the meaning of the constitutional statutory
provisions."
Tli is was enough. All they had to do was
see the sheep on the pasture. Then all the
rest of the criteria went out the window.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hanson.
DELEGATE HANSON: What in the
judgment of the Committee is the manner
in which the General Assembly will make
the decision as to what is a bona fide farm?
I note in the Committee Report that the
Committee has deleted the provision that
was in the Commission draft to link open
spaces use with agricultural use on the
ground that open spaces are too difficult to
define.
I wonder if the Committee looked into
the ease with which agriculture can be
defined?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: Yes, the Committee
had before it not only Regulation 9 of the
state Department of Assessments and Tax-
ation, various laws which I have talked
about in my presentation, but it had a
great number of witnesses including the
chief supervisor of assessments of the
state, Mr. Albert W. Ward, his deputy,
Mr. Riley, and a great many other people.
They had all said that given the right
to make the classification, they can do it.
They exhibited, for example, a question-
naire which contained about six or seven
pages, going into many facets of this.
The sum total of it all is that the ad-
ministrator says they can within a reason-
able degree of accuracy and a complete de-
gree of fairness define a farm for this pur-
pose, if they are given the legislative right
to do so.
But the Alsop case withdrew that right.
What we are trying to do is give them
that right back again.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hanson.
DELEGATE HANSON: Would giving
them this right require the legislature to do
anything more than exists in the present
law? Can the legislature simply conclude
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