Developer and U.S. Senate candidate Terrence Wall sent the following as an email to Capital Times reporter Mike Ivey in response to a story about Wall's use of the state's "use value" law to reclassify some of his land in Middleton as agricultural and thereby lower his property taxes.

It's not a loophole; it's the law, and we are in full compliance with the law.

Feingold's political operatives are just making hay because they view me as a credible threat. Instead of debating the issues on a substantive basis, they attack me and my company on peripheral issues.

Take the home mortgage deduction example. I take a home mortgage deduction just like everyone who owns a home. What if the full-time liberal political operatives suggested that I not take the home mortgage deduction just because I am running for office? Would that be fair?

What isn't fair is the double standard that is applied to anyone who is not a liberal. Why is my company not entitled to the full protection of the law? Why should we be expected to pay more in tax than the law requires? Should I forgo the home mortgage deduction just because I am running for office?

As for the farm land use assessment, the law is beneficial to farmers because even when the land is owned by non-farmers, the owners still rent the land to farmers for lower rent because of the farm land assessment law. Farm land rent would be higher if not for the farm land use assessment law. (I know because when the law was passed, the farmers we rent to all demanded lower rent.) For example, we have land we rent to farmers for basically close to nothing because of that law - the farmers know of the law, they know that land owners receive a lower assessment if the land is put to productive use farming, and therefore, they negotiate a lower rent (sometimes near zero) because of that law.

Likewise, because of the farm land use assessment law, developers aren't pressured into developing land immediately in order to avoid the extraordinary carrying costs associated with the property taxes on land that is not yet producing revenue from development. This means that the land is held in a farm land state for a longer period of time compared to if developers were forced to develop more quickly because of the high carrying costs.

Therefore, the law doing exactly as the legislature intended. It provides for lower farm land rent to farmers, and it encourages developers to keep the land in a farmed state for as long as possible.

If the law did not exist, then developers would have to plan and zone land in tiny phases, thereby significantly lowering the productive value of the land to society because when land is not developed based upon a comprehensive master plan, the land would be developed in lower densities and with lower quality development. The farm land use assessment allows a larger parcel of land to be master planned by the developer and developed at higher densities and higher quality than otherwise. Higher densities translate to less farm land being developed. Society benefits.

Liberals have never found a tax increase they didn't like. They will always argue for higher taxes, higher assessments, higher fees, because for many of them, their very own livelihood depends on ever increasing the size of government. In their minds, the private sector should always pay more, but more is never enough for them.

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