MARVIN MANDEL, Governor

3825

agricultural use.

WHEREAS, The increasing urbanization of our society
has caused a shrinking of the land available for
agricultural use; and

WHEREAS, This unfortunate situation is compounded by
the unfortunate and ill—advised policy of the Internal
Revenue Service that requires valuation of farmland and
woodlands at market value for estate tax purposes; and

WHEREAS, Therefore land which may be assessed at
$500 an acre when used for agriculture can increase to a
market value of $2,000 [[to $3,000]] or more an acre if
assessed on the basis of non—farm use; and

WHEREAS, This means that heirs to farmland may be
forced to sell off acreage, even though they may wish to
farm it, because of the high estate tax that must be paid
at the time it is received as an inheritance; and

WHEREAS, Once agricultural land is sold off to land
speculators it is economically unfeasible to put it back
into farming; and

WHEREAS, Out of town speculators have little concern
for local welfare while they sit on the land waiting to
make their profits. They constitute a threat of future
intensive development of the land when the speculator can
get his price; and

WHEREAS, In excess of 35,000 acres of land is
removed from agricultural use each year in Maryland
alone; and

WHEREAS, The elimination of hundreds of thousands of
acres of farmland each year in the United States is a
serious national problem which has detrimental local
effects; and

WHEREAS, Senator Charles McC. Mathias and
Representative Goodloe Byron have both introduced
legislation in the Congress to accomplish a change in the
taxing of agricultural lands; and

WHEREAS, The House Ways and Means Committee of the
Congress will soon begin a complete review of estate tax
laws; and

WHEREAS, The policy of taxing farmland at its value
in non—farm use for inheritance tax purposes is one of
the shortsighted steps taken in the name of progress
which is ruining the ecology and the economy of this
country; and