Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Agriculture in Great Falls?

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by

Dick Hall-Sizemore
in ,

Youngkin stables
Photo credit: Fairfax County Planning Commission

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Well, it seems as if rich folks in leftist-leaning Albemarle are not the only rich folks availing themselves of real estate tax breaks. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports today that Glenn Youngkin and his wife have saved 95% of their real estate taxes on their horse “farm” in Great Falls, the posh area of Fairfax County.

Rather than get conservation easements, which often are perpetual, the Youngkins got their property designated as an “agricultural district” by Fairfax County. Such designation lowered the real estate taxes on the property by 95%, saving them over $150,000 over the last two years. One of the conditions for the designation is that the Youngkins agreed not to develop the property for eight years.

Last year, some neighbors expressed concern that the Youngkins intended to establish a commercial operation or boarding business. Mrs. Youngkin, the applicant, assured the planning commission that it was not her intention to do that.

Be that as it may, the website for one of the properties, Normandy Farm, has this description for “Who We Are”:

“Premier, boutique barn and historic horse farm located just 18 miles from the heart of Washington, D.C. dedicated to the well-being and training of equine athletes.

With state-of-the-art facilities, full-service care, the areas top trainers and care-givers, attention to detail and a club-like environment, The Stable at Normandy Farm excels at providing a high-end, healthy environment for horses and riders alike.”

It also provides a phone number for anyone wanting information on “Boarding availability” and “Training Services.”

The Youngkin campaign told the RTD that “training and boarding on the farm is minimal.”

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51 responses to “Agriculture in Great Falls?”

  1. Bruce at Liberty Avatar
    Bruce at Liberty

    I suspect if this “loophole” exists in the Fairfax County tax code exists it was created by and used by many people before Youngkin, and I suspect they are Democrats.

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Using every legal means at one’s disposal to lighten one’s tax burden is not a democrat thing or a republican thing – it is an everybody thing.

      1. Super Brain Avatar
        Super Brain

        Just like Donnie boy’s 750 tax.

      2. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        And Bezos? You absolutely sure you didn’t drop a turd on him?

        1. Super Brain Avatar
          Super Brain

          Not sure if Bezo’s accountant has been indicted yet.

  2. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    Agricultural and Forestal Districts are ubiquitous in rural counties in Virginia. I did not know Fairfax still offered them. It’s the best way for the people who own the most land to pay the least taxes. Some counties police the requirements for inclusion more vigorously than others.

    I’m sure Youngkin’s opposition research is, as I type this, finding some similar or analogous tax dodge that McAuliffe uses.

    The bottom line is, rich people, like poor people and middle-class people, don’t like paying taxes.

    1. Jesse Avatar
      Jesse

      We already know that McAuliffe likes to spend taxpayer money on boondoggles in an attempt to further promote himself.

    2. Super Brain Avatar
      Super Brain

      Rich folks have tax lawyers and CPA’s. The IRS sends regular folks CP2000 notices to audit them.

    3. Super Brain Avatar
      Super Brain

      Actually they if that must pay, it has to be capital gains instead of ordinary income.

  3. William O'Keefe Avatar
    William O’Keefe

    As someone who use to live in McLean on the border with Great Falls, I know that a number of land owners have taken advantage of similar provisions in the County code. The Times Dispatch showed it bias by making this a page one story. Anyone who does not take advantage of provisions that allow them to pay lower taxes has more money than good sense. The people of Great Falls, at least many, want to control density so that it will not get too developed. That’s why Georgetown Pike which runs through Great Falls has a designation that keeps it from being widened.
    This was a no story story.

  4. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    Agricultural district status has one big advantage over conservation easements (as Dick points out) — they can be revoked. Still, there’s no question that Youngkin benefits from a big tax break that ordinary Fairfax homeowners don’t enjoy.

    I do think it’s a fair question to know who else in Fairfax County enjoys the agricultural-district tax break, how much the tax breaks are worth, and what limits they impose on non-farming activity.

    Another question: are horse farms a permitted agricultural use?

    How do you define a “horse farm”?

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Lots of Horse Chestnut trees? Or would that be a horse orchard?

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      In addition to being “kicked out” for violating the rules of the district, an owner can also apply to have parcel(s) removed from an Ag or Forestal District.

      Whichever way the property leaves the district, there is usually a tax penalty involved. In two counties I am familiar with, the owner must pay 5-years “back taxes”, equal to the difference between the tax amount at the full real estate tax rate and the amount paid while the property was in the district.

  5. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    I have heard from unverified sources that life-long state employee Dick Hall-Sizemore has used a loophole in the tax code to avoid paying his full share of taxes. It seems Mr. Hall-Sizemore deducted interest on his home loan while paying off the debt used to acquire his residence. Oh the humanity! Hall-Sizemore apparently has no regrets about his tax avoidance despite the fact that it was tax dollars that paid his salary as a longtime state government employee. It seems Mr. Hall-Sizemore is only too happy to take the hard won cash of fellow Virginians to line his own pockets while simultaneously using shady loopholes to avoid paying his fair share of taxes.

    C’mon, Dick … blame the law not those who follow the law. Fairfax County and the state of Virginia have been in Democratic hands for a while now. If the agricultural loophole needs to be closed then you should be people like Eileen Filler-Corn why she isn’t doing that.

    1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      You may be getting a call from the IRS to ask who gave you a peek at my tax returns.

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      That’s pretty good satire.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Dope.

  6. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I’d be surprised if there is any real “AG” land in Fairfax and especially so in Great Falls. Land is valued/assessed typically as best and highest use and developers will typically try to acquire raw land and keep the valuation to the lower uses (and lower taxes) until they’re ready to develop it. If a property owner truly wishes to preserve the land – forever – they extinguish the development rights for all time , not just for a few years. Or they will deed it to the Nature Conservancy and retain the right to live on it until they pass, etc…. Is Youngkin using the provisions of the tax code to reduce his taxes, Yep… just like these folks that put their money into capital gains and qualified dividends do and end up paying lower taxes on that money that many taxpayers pay on their salary income. Pretty sure McAuliffe does that also.

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      There are little pockets of agricultural land in even the most built-up parts of Virginia – except possibly within the city limits of Arlington and Alexandria.

      1. Matt Adams Avatar
        Matt Adams

        I must have imaged the farms and AG land when I’ve in NOVA. I wonder what I was seeing?

  7. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    Anybody wanna make a bet against the following proposition: Terry McAuliffe has and still does take advantage of various tax preferences which have been installed over the years to protect the wealthy from paying in full. Show of hands? All the rich elite that had houses at Wintergreen while we did certainly benefitted from that conservation easement….

    Seriously Dick, find and publicize the patron(s) of these bills. Don’t blame somebody for following the law. This would only have been a story if Youngkin had lobbied the legislature to create this exemption, and then took it.

    1. Jesse Avatar
      Jesse

      Yep. Mark Warner has wineries, another “ag for the wealthy”. While he was governor, the legislature passed bills “protecting” and giving benefits to wineries. I never heard a peep for the intelligentsia or from the media.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        and now there are wineries all over the state – more than 300 and apparently some are also installing solar panels ! double dipping!

    2. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      I don’t blame him for following the law any more than I blame the folks in Albemarle that Jim singled out earlier for obtaining conservation easements.

  8. Steve Gillispie Avatar
    Steve Gillispie

    Another shallow, irrelevant hit piece from this author prostituting his credentials shilling for those leftists’ “atta-boys” — grasping at any straw he can find to smear Republicans.

    But, really, you are so desperate for a hit piece that you slander a candidate for following the law the same as you and any other responsible person does?

    By the way, most if not all tax exemptions benefit everyone as they are created to encourage behavior — maybe like protecting some land from concrete, owning a home, investing or raising children, or serving in the military, or something……..

    1. Super Brain Avatar
      Super Brain

      No need to to get worked up. This is a popcorn flatulence
      compared to what he actually pays in income taxes.

    2. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Bacon’s Rebellion will be an echo chamber for both campaigns over the coming months. It is what it is.

      1. Super Brain Avatar
        Super Brain

        Jim should ask each campaign for 10 years of 1040’s and VA 760’s. White House vetting usually requires 10 years of returns. Might find some nice credits on those 760’s.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          I agree. Let’s see those tax returns…

    3. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      I notice that you did not express equal consternation at Jim Bacon’s recent dig at Michael Bills for living in a “mountaintop manse overlooking bucolic, tax-advantaged hayfields” .

      1. Stephen Haner Avatar
        Stephen Haner

        Uh, I have far larger issues with Bills. An attack on candidate A for behavior just as likely to be exhibited by candidate B (and nobody asked) is what goes by the technical term hatchet job.

        1. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          If that’s a “hatchet job”, what is a “hit piece”?

          🙂

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            When you come at them sideways.

      2. WayneS Avatar
        WayneS

        There is a difference. The difference is a certain level of hypocrisy.

        Mr. Bills belongs to, and generously supports, a political party which almost constantly talks about and pursues a philosophy of “taxing the rich” and making the rich pay their “fair share”. Wealthy members of this party might be considered a bit hypocritical, then, when they avail themselves of tax breaks for the wealthy such as the one which was the subject of your post.

        Right or wrong, the political party to which Mr. Youngkin belongs espouses no such philosophy. So, in Mr. Youngkin’s case, no hypocrisy.

  9. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    That cuts it. He’s a horse person. They’re all fricking crazy. I dealt with horse people, men and women, for 10 years and not a one’s got a lick of sense. It’s not like cat people or dog people. It’s a total loss of higher level brain function. I think it comes from methane in the horse farts and shoveling so much…. hey wait! Are all politicians horse people?

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Ten Reasons Motorcycles are Better Than Horses.

      1. You do not need a fence to keep your motorcycle contained.
      2. A motorcycle’s garage stall does not need to be mucked out.
      3. You’ll never get a call from your neighbor that your motorcycle is grazing in his hay field.
      4. If your motorcycle breaks down you can let it sit until you feel like dealing with it.
      5. You do not need to feed a motorcycle until/unless you are going to ride it.
      6. Motorcycles do not get spooked by stray dogs.
      7. You do not need to borrow your neighbor’s backhoe when your motorcycle dies.
      8. You do not have to pay someone to take care of your motorcycle when you go on vacation.
      9. Motorcycles do not bite.
      10. Motorcycles stop after you fall off of them.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        2. Unless it’s a Norton.

        1. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          True enough.

          1. Brian Leeper Avatar
            Brian Leeper

            A motorcycle won’t take you home if you happen to fall asleep while riding it

          2. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Or walk under a low branch.

          3. Brian Leeper Avatar
            Brian Leeper

            A motorcycle also doesn’t run on ecologically efficient biomass, and requires periodic safety inspections. It also doesn’t self-repair broken and worn parts.

      2. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        But you can’t use the droppings from a motorcyle on your garden.

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          You can, but the tomatoes taste bad,

  10. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    This is the way that kind of program works in Spotsylvania:

    ” Division 3 – Special Assessments for Agricultural, Horticultural, Forest or Open Space Real Estate

    Purpose
    The purpose of the Land Use Program is to further the public interest by encouraging the preservation of land, to conserve and protect the County’s natural resources, to protect safe water supplies, and to promote orderly land use planning and development.

    The Land Use Program is a tax deferral, not a discount.

    The assessment of the land is based on the use value
    and not the fair market value.

    The tax deferral amount will be repaid with interest if the use of the land changes.”

    https://www.spotsylvania.va.us/657/Land-Use-Program

  11. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    “One of the conditions for the designation is that the Youngkins agreed not to develop the property for eight years.”

    “The Youngkin campaign told the RTD that “training and boarding on the farm is minimal.”

    So, the fraud is minimal.

    Maybe the Carlyle Group paid some tuition too?

    1. Super Brain Avatar
      Super Brain

      Can I claim agri use if I Plant 4 pot plants?

  12. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    So when I was delivering feedbags for Tri County Feeds in Marshall, I had 8 stops once a week in Great Falls. Amazing small scale equestrian estates. Great customers too. They always tipped if you did a good job of putting the feedbags in the right place.

  13. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I don’t think it is a “hit piece”, just what we’re going to see in the back and forth. I’m quite sure Youngkin’s guys have queued up Green Tech and more and ready to let loose at the appropriate time.

    I heard McAuliffe say something to the effect that this was small potatoes compared to the fact that Youngkin was a Trump supporter. I suspect, McAuliffe folks are quite thoroughly searching for words and paper that further implicates Youngkin with Trump – as it’s the suburbs in Virginia that has turned Va blue and totally against Trump.

    Anything that ties Youngkin to Trump is going to hurt him with a lot of the suburban voters IMHO.

    It will also be interesting when Youngkin campaigns in rural Virginia, if he associates himself with Trump and/or at his rallies, Trump supporters show up with MAGA hats and Trump flags… which will no doubt be captured in pictures and distributed far and wide in Nova and other suburbs of Virginia.

  14. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
    energyNOW_Fan

    Ugh the Fairfax Democrats all the rage about banning plastic bags, but look at the tax breaks they let rich people take.

    1. Super Brain Avatar
      Super Brain

      This special set aside bears no resemblance to the mortgage interest deduction. One does not need a special application and a vote for a 1040 deduction. The other candidates for the GOP nomination has lazy opposition research.

  15. UltraModerate Avatar
    UltraModerate

    Why isn’t the media talking about the write-in campaign for Amanda Chase? Are they so never-Trump they won’t even give it a mention?

    Chase was the one who stood up for Trump and stayed behind him, not Glenn “I can’t decide whether I like Trump or not” Youngkin. Chase is the REAL conservative candidate. Just because the RINOs in Richmond decided to deny us the primary doesn’t mean we’re not going to vote for her! #WriteInToWin #Chase2021

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