ATLANTA – Legislation relating to Conservation Use Valuation Assessment (CUVA) is moving through the Georgia General Assembly. Both state Rep. Chas Cannon and state Sen. Sam Watson have sponsored bills that are currently in play.

What is CUVA?

CUVA allows landowners to enter a covenant for forested lands or agricultural lands that can significantly reduce their property taxes. It was instituted in 1992.

The covenant is for a period of ten years in which the landowner’s property taxes are based on the land’s productivity instead of its fair market value.

The Georgia Department of Revenue website states that property in the covenant is assessed at 40% of its current use value and, according to a 2018 fact sheet by the Georgia Farm Bureau, “CUVA tax values are determined based on location in the state and soil quality.”

The fact sheet also states, “There is a formula regulated by the Georgia Department of Revenue in consultation with other government agencies.”

The current code outlines a multitude of requirements for eligibility for the covenant.  Cannon’s and Watson’s bills seek to change a couple of the requirements.

Remove limitation on leases

Companion bills HB 129 and SB 59 were written to amend the code “to remove a limitation on leased property as to certain entities.”

The statute, as it stands now, does not let non-family farm members join up to lease farmland, Cannon said in a January interview. He also said that these days, because of legal issues or insurance, farmers like to form LLCs for liability protection.

Two brothers can farm together, said Cannon, and keep their land in the conservation covenant, but two non-related farmers cannot and he said they should be able to.

Watson said, in an interview in January, that legislators need to update the statute to reflect today’s farming industry. Like Cannon, he said many farms today are LLCs or partnerships between individuals who aren’t related to each other.

Increasing maximum acreage to qualify

Another issue in the statute as it stands now, Watson said, is the cap of 2,000 acres, since many farms today are more than 2,000 acres, as compared to years ago.

SB 45 and SR 56, both sponsored by Watson, seek to “increase the maximum acreage to qualify for assessment and taxation as a bona fide conservation use property.” The proposed legislation doubles the maximum acreage to 4,000.

“We’ve got to update some of our tax laws for how farming is done now,” Watson said and added that the laws were based on the “family farm,” and the farming industry has changed.

Limiting exceptions to solar farms covenant breaches

Cannon has also sponsored a bill, HB 169, “to limit exceptions to the breach of covenants for bona fide conservation use and forest land conservation use related to the solar generation of energy to existing contracts and to provide for applicability.”

“Our district is known for prime farmland. You’ve got places out there that already have structures in place that are permanent structures and land that can’t be used for farming. I’d like to see solar companies or the land owners go after those areas first,” Cannon said in the January interview. “Put it on rooftops of pre-existing warehouses. Put over the parking lot at Walmart. Somewhere there’s already been some kind of development.“

Back in 2015, the state legislature carved out the ability for someone to be able to put solar panels on their farm land and it not breach the CUVA covenant, he said.

“We’re probably gonna remove that because putting solar on farmland is kind of the same as putting a gas station on farmland or a convenient store on farmland. It’s no longer ag. It’s no longer farmland. It’s being used as an industrial or commercial use,” Cannon said.

He also said, earlier this year, he’d propose that people who were currently in CUVA would be grandfathered in. Someone that wanted to put solar panels on their farm going forward would be breaching the CUVA covenant, he said.

“And because of that, you got to pay a penalty for breaking that covenant. But the landowner should still have the right to put solar panels on their land. Period,” he said.

Combining multiple covenants into one new covenant

HB 547, another bill sponsored by Cannon, seeks to permit the combination of the multiple CUVA covenants of a single owner into a single, new, ten-year covenant.

Keep up with these bills and find other legislation on the General Assembly’s website at https://www.legis.ga.gov/.

As of Monday, Feb. 24

The progress of the bills for the removal of limitation on leases for certain entities are:

HB 129: Second Reader

SB 59: Adopted by Senate; House Second Readers

The progress of the bills for increasing the maximum acreage to qualify for CUVA are:

SB 45: Adopted by Senate; House Second Readers

SR 56: Adopted by Senate; House Second Readers

The progress of the bill for permitting the combination of multiple CUVA covenants into a single, new ten-year covenant is:

HB 547: House Second Reader

The progress of the bill for limiting exceptions to the breach of CUVA for solar farms is:

HB 169: House Committee Favorably Reported by Substitute