The 1st meeting of the Subcommittee on Natural Resources of the Interim Joint Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources was held on Wednesday, June 13, 2007, at<MeetTime> 10:15 AM, in Room 131 of the Capitol Annex. Senator Ernie Harris, Chair, called the meeting to order, and the secretary called the roll.
Present were:
Members: Senator Ernie Harris, Co-Chair; Senator Dorsey Ridley; Representatives Hubert Collins and Brandon Spencer.
Guests: Mr. Jon Gassett, Commissioner of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources; Jim Carloss, Homebuilders; Bert May, Kentucky League of Cities; and Eric Gregory, East KY Power Co-op.
LRC Staff: Hank Marks, Tonya Monsanto, and Jo Ann Paulin.
The meeting was called to order by the Chair, Sen. Ernie Harris. A quorum was not present.
Dr. Jon Gassestt, Commissioner of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR), was invited by the Chair to testify before the subcommittee. He gave a presentation on the conservation tax credit proposal, HB 354, advocated by the KDFWR during the 2007 General Assembly.
Commission Gassett began his presentation by providing statistics relating to the number of hunters, anglers, and wildlife watchers in Kentucky and the economic and tax impact and benefits of hunting and fishing, in terms of licenses, retail sales, jobs, wages and salaries, and tax revenues. He stated that the overall value of land to the state is $197 per acre.
Commission Gassett stated that, despite this activity and value, there is a lack of opportunity. He stated that the problem is that there is "nowhere to go", that is, more than 90 percent of Kentucky lands are private, current funding for purchase or easements is inadequate, and landowner liability protection is unavailable. He noted that Senate bill 48 of the 2006 General Assembly could have addressed this, and will likely be reintroduced in 2008. In this regard the Commissioner went on to describe the economic loss, $250,279,000, resulting from this lack of land access for hunting, fishing, and wildlife watching.
The solution advocated by the KDFWR is to capture revenue by providing more opportunity for public access and recreation by to providing a tax credit to landowners who place conservation easements for access on their property. He noted that a model tiered tax credit program is based on the value of the easement and the level of wildlife-associated public access. Commissioner Gassett then went on to define wildlife-associated public access and described how the tiered program would work in terms of the increasing percentages of market value that would be paid in exchange for increasing numbers of years of public access granted. He then discussed the criteria and review process that would be used for prioritizing and selecting applicants, the limitations that would be placed on tax credits that are granted, and what applications would not be eligible for consideration for tax credits.
Dr. Gassett discussed the opportunities landowners would have to sell their tax credits, the benefits of a secondary industry that would be created to conduct the sales of tax credits, and the economic and tax impacts of tax credits. He then discussed states with conservation tax credit programs, noting that there are twelve, and discussed in some detail the programs of North Carolina and Virginia. Finally, he discussed some problems experience by other states with tax credit programs and some things that have been learned through the consideration of HB 354 of the 2007 General Assembly.
The commissioner conclude his presentation by summarizing the benefits he thought would result form a tax credit program. They were, he said, an increased economic impact, lands would remain in private ownership, there would be more conservation of fish and wildlife, fewer acres taken off property tax rolls as compared with outright purchase of land by the state, and creation of a tax credit sale and transfer industry.
Senator Harris asked about the value of such tax credits to individuals in varying circumstances and suggested that several examples of how it would work, especially in the so-called golden Triangle, for individuals and for county taxes would be helpful in promoting the idea with taxpayers and county officials. Senator Harris then asked what it was that people are going out of state to find that we, in fact, have here in Kentucky. Commission Gossett noted that West Virginia has 2.5 times more public lands than Kentucky. Access and availability is a reason hunters go to the neighboring states.
There was a brief discussion of HB 354 and SB 48 of the 2006 General Assembly, after which, there being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.