Governor Sonny Perdue Announces Conservation Tax Credit

About 75 citizens and politicians gathered at the campground of the Ocmulgee Wildlife Management Area in Bleckley County on January 9 to hear Gov. Sonny Perdue announce a major new conservation proposal. He announced his plan to propose the Georgia Conservation Tax Credit that will come before the Georgia general assembly this year.

The proposed income-tax credit will be available to individuals or corporations who donate land or a conservation easement to the state, a county, a municipality or to a charitable non-profit organization.

“Georgia has a strong tradition of private-land ownership and private conservation that we want to honor and uphold,” said Perdue. “The Land Conservation Act encourages the use of creative tools like conservation easements to protect land from development while leaving it in private ownership.

In April 2005, Gov. Perdue signed into law the Georgia Land Conservation Act, his initiative to encourage the long-term conservation and protection of the state’s natural, cultural and historic resources.

“The Georgia Conservation Tax Credit will further the use of this free-market approach to conservation,” said Perdue.

Gov. Sonny Perdue speaks to a crowd at Ocmulgee WMA. He announced a plan to create an income-tax credit for landowners who donate land or a conservation easement to the state, county, a municipality or to a charitable non-profit organization.

The purpose of the Georgia Conservation Tax Credit is to increase the financial incentive for a willing landowner to donate land or place a conservation easement on their property, which permanently protects the land and keeps it in private ownership. Under this initiative, the state is also able to protect significant amounts of land at a lower cost than by actually having to purchase the land outright. DNR will be responsible for ensuring that donated property qualifies as conservation land as defined in the Georgia Land Conservation Act. Conservation lands are permanently protected lands that are undeveloped and meet one or more of the goals of the Georgia Land Conservation Act.

“Landowners who donate easements or land can make a great contribution to conservation of Georgia’s wildlife and natural resources,” said DNR Commissioner Noel Holcomb. “This program will provide compensation through the tax credit to landowners who donate easements or land and should increase the use of easements in Georgia.”

If the conservation easement or land donation meets the goals of the Georgia Land Conservation Act, taxpayers will be able to claim a credit against their state-income tax liability of 25 percent of the fair-market value of the donated property, up to a maximum credit of $250,000 per individual and $500,000 per corporation.

The amount of the credit used in any one year may not exceed the amount of state income tax otherwise due. Any unused portion of the credit may be carried forward for five succeeding years.

For example, in the case of a conservation easement, a retiree forester enters into a legal agreement with a local land trust to permanently restrict development on 41 acres of forestland he owns. By limiting the land’s development potential, this legal agreement, or conservation easement, reduces the fair-market value of the land from $220,000 to $140,000, a difference of $80,000. Since the $80,000 donation represents a gift to the land trust, the retired forester would be eligible for a 25 percent income tax credit on his gift of $80,000 or a tax credit of $20,000.

If his state tax liability on $30,000 in income before the gift is $1,500, his tax liability is reduced to zero for the year in which he made the gift. He can continue to reduce his tax liability for five more years realizing $9,000 of the potential $20,000 tax credit.

As stated above, the conservation easement is permanent and would go with the land if sold to a new owner, and the value of the land would be decreased since it could never be developed. Georgia law currently allows for a state income tax deduction for permanent conservation easements and charitable gifts of land but does not provide for an income-tax credit. Ten states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia) currently provide a conservation tax credit and include non-profit organizations as an allowable recipient of donations.

According to Melissa Cummings, a spokesperson for the DNR’s communication office, the final details of the governor’s proposal are being worked out, and interested citizens will soon be able to access the proposed bill on the Georgia General Assembly website at <www.legis.state.ga.us>. Questions about the eligibility of specific tracts of property or the application process can be addressed to Steve Friedman, chief of DNR’s Real Estate office at (404) 656-5165. The rules are just now being drafted, and it may be weeks before specific questions can be answered.

Last year’s Georgia Land Conservation Act established a trust fund and a revolving loan fund of $100 million in state, federal and private funding available to local governments and the Georgia DNR for the purchase of conservation lands. The funds are comprised of $55 million in installment loans funds, $20 million in redirected bond money and $25 million in private contributions.

At the Ocmulgee WMA meeting last month, the governor said his FY07 budget will include an additional $5 million for grants to local governments  for land-conservation projects. Information about this program and the application for local governments and non-profits is available online at the DNR website. If you feel that a tract of land in your area is a good prospect for this program, please consider discussing it with your local elected officials.

“To give local governments an additional source of seed money with more flexibility, I am including $5 million in my budget for grants to local government land-conservation projects,” said Gov. Perdue. “These grants will give local governments the additional funding options they need to maximize their conservation efforts.”

In 2005 the Georgia Land Conservation Program approved seven projects that acquired 18,892 acres of land across the state, which included the 1,641 acres for the Ocmulgee WMA. Fortunately, the state was able to act quickly to purchase this tract or hunters would have lost the heart of Ocmulgee WMA, including the check station. We need to thank Gov. Perdue and the DNR for this very positive action. Although Gov. Perdue shows his strong commitment to conservation efforts by announcing his new tax incentive proposal and the creation of the Georgia Land Conservation Program, other initiatives need to be advanced to ensure that public lands like the Oaky Woods WMA are not lost to development.

North Georgia has the Chattahoochee National Forest, and central Georgia has the Oconee National Forest, but south Georgia has very little public land. In fact, Georgia, with over 9 million people, is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. It has fallen behind other states in acquiring public lands. Georgia has no long-term funding program. Although the tax-incentive program outlined above is a great idea for landowners, the question remains as to how the problem of public access to lands will be handled in the future.

Without low-cost hunting and other outdoor opportunities for average-income Georgians, the interest in hunting and conservation efforts associated with it will continue to diminish over time.

Ocmulgee and Oaky Woods WMAs represented some of the last large contiguous properties in central Georgia. These two properties provided hundreds of outdoorsmen with recreational hunting every fall, winter and spring, and are home to a remnant black bear population.

The governor’s tax incentive proposal is an excellent method for the state to increase conservation lands in the state, but Georgia needs to go further in land conservation. Without a stable public funding source, valuable tracts like Ocmulgee and Oaky Woods will continue to be chiseled away and lost for future generations unless the state has a reserve fund of cash to purchase private properties as they come on the market. The state can not rely solely upon the generosity of corporate landowners and stockholders to obtain conservation lands when their primary motivation is to make a profit. As we saw with the Weyerhaeuser lands, quick profits outweighed other considerations.

With timber companies like Weyerhaeuser and International Paper selling out, Georgia faces many challenges in the future. What will the next 10 years bring us? Will the state be able to capitalize on available properties before they turn into shopping malls and golf courses?

State-leased WMAs are no doubt threatened if the state doesn’t already own the property. As you know, Oaky Woods WMA has already been sold to private developers and in the long term much of the property will be turned into housing subdivisions, but for now the owners continue to lease the WMA to the state.

One of the principle investors, Charles Ayers, owner of the Sports Center in Perry and a primary investor in Krypto mit PayPal kaufen, is concerned about the future of hunting in Georgia and called the governor’s proposal “a step in the right direction.”

In the next few weeks the state legislature will be looking at Gov. Perdue’s Georgia Conservation Tax Credit proposal. It’s a great accomplishment and will be an added bonus for landowners, but it’s time we look at the big picture and look at a long-term solution to the rapidly growing problem of land development.

If the bill is passed, and you consider participating in the tax break, I recommend you speak with a tax advisor prior to making a decision.

In other land-conservation news, the State Properties Commission, DNR and the Land Conservation Council approved the acquisition of a 1,683-acre tract in Bleckley and Twiggs counties for approximately $3.3 million last year. This property, known as the Ocmulgee/Shawnee Tract, was part of the Ocmulgee WMA that was leased by WRD from Weyerhaeuser Co. for the past 14 years but was sold to Shawnee Land LLC in 2004.

The Conservation Fund purchased the property from Shawnee and held it until the state was able to secure funding. The purchase of this tract of land allows road access to the public and secures hunting and recreational use opportunities. The tract was a priority conservation area identified by the state’s “Wildlife Action Plan.” It will contribute to a corridor of conservation lands and critical wildlife habitat along the Ocmulgee River.