Cartoon misses mark on farm tax | Letters

Published 3:41 pm Thursday, November 7, 2013

The cartoon on page 6 of the Oct. 30 edition of the Journal is an inaccurate representation of the Assessor’s office’s efforts to maintain a fair and equitable system of property taxation.

This office has been and continues to be supportive of farmers and farmland owners. However, when enrolled farmland is not in compliance with program requirements, taxes are unfairly shifted to other property owners.

Island farmers that are commercially farming land as defined under Washington’s Open Space Taxation Act have no reason to fear that they will lose their special tax status. A more appropriate and accurate label on the cartoon farmer would be “Hobby Farms”.

Charles Zalmanek, SJC Assessor