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To: Organic Issues <organic@lists.iatp.org>
From: mritchie@iatp.org
Date: 2002-04-21 18:51:02
Subject: Landmark tax case, hog production and impact on property
values- Court Decision
Hog industry insider--3/25/02
BY STEVE MARBERY Feedstuffs Correspondent Landmark tax case The Nebraska Court of Appeals last month concluded that hogs can
negatively influence property values. Victory went to a hog
producer who protested high valuations. He and his family live
three-quarters of a mile from their hog facility. In Bruce Livingston vs. the Jefferson County Board of
Equalization, appellate judges overturned a lower court ruling.
Livingston has produced hogs since 1990 in southeastern Nebraska,
14 miles south of Fairbury. He built a $329,000 home in 1999 near
his hog complex, accessible by four-wheel drive in a relatively
isolated location. The tax board valued the home at $540,000 in 2000. Livingston
protested the valuation Aug. 24, 2000, claiming his appraiser
valued he home and land at $325,000. The board reassessed the
house and land at $470,000. Livingston appealed to the state Tax Equalization & Review
Commission (TERC). His appraiser testified that the hog farrowing
facility and manure easement would depress values at least 30%
and the remote location another 10%. Those values were reflected
in his appraiser's assessment, he told the commission. TERC
rejected the arguments, as did the lower court. The appellate court reversed the decision and ordered TERC to
consider the producer's appeal based on the impact of the hog
facility, manure easement and remote location on the property's
fair market value, even though Livingston owns the hog unit and
chose to build his home nearby.
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