Farm unit urges OK for bond

Saturday, October 6, 2007

By RICHARD PEARSALL
Courier-Post Staff

The New Jersey Farm Bureau is adding its voice to the chorus of environmental groups calling for approval of Question No. 3 on the November ballot.

The question asks voters to approve a $200 million bond issue to support the acquisition of open space and the protection of other environmentally or historically valuable property in the state.

The Farm Bureau, which represents some 16,000 farmers and "farm-related" individuals, wants voters to remember that farmland is an important part of that "other" and that preserving it is a good economic as well as aesthetic and environmental investment.

"It is important that residents of the state understand how the farmland preservation program works," said Farm Bureau President Richard Nieuwenhuis. "It's not any sort of gift to farmers. Farm properties are tax ratables."

Keeping the land in farming not only protects soil and water resources and ensures access to locally grown produce, Nieuwenhuis said, but keeps down the development that increases both traffic and taxes while keeping a good rateable on the tax rolls.

"Cows don't go to school," he said, "but farmers do pay taxes."

Since 1999, open space acquisition, farmland preservation and historic preservation have been funded by the Garden State Preservation Trust, a program approved by voters in 1998 under which $98 million a year in sales tax revenues goes to support the Trust fund and its bond issues.

Those annual contributions will continue for another two decades, through 2029, but they are sufficient at this point only to pay off the bonds already issued -- some $1 billion worth -- not to support any further acquisitions.

A drive earlier this year to replenish the Garden State Preservation Trust on a long-term basis -- by dedicating an additional $175 million per year of sales tax revenue to the fund for years to come -- came up short in the Legislature, with Gov. Jon Corzine and some of his Democratic allies balking because of concern over chronic budget deficits.

As a compromise, the governor supported and the Legislature enacted the one-time bond issue now on the ballot as a way to save the trust fund while buying time to find a more permanent solution.

Sale of the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway to a private, nonprofit organization could provide that solution, the governor has suggested, with toll revenues from those roads supporting bond issues for transportation as well as environmental projects.

Whatever the funding source, the Farm Bureau and an environmental coalition known as "Keep it Green" argue, maintaining the acquisition drive is critical.

Developers won't wait, they note, and once developed, open space and farmland alike are gone for good.

To date, the state has managed to preserve 160,000 acres of farmland -- 17 percent of the total, the highest percentage of deed-restricted farmland in the country.

Salem County now leads the state in total number of farm acres preserved -- 23,572 -- with Hunterdon second at 22,843 and Burlington third at 21,982.

The long term goal of the State Agriculture Development Committee, which administers the farmland preservation program, is to preserve 600,000 acres.

The $200 million bond issue on next month's ballot would be divided as follows:

$109 million to open space preservation.

$73 million for farmland preservation.

$6 million for historic preservation.

$12 million for Blue Acres, a new program to acquire property in flood-prone areas.

Reach Richard Pearsall at (856) 486-2465 or rpearsall@courierpostonline.com

‹Back to News