On January 12, 2010, a final meeting of the equine property tax work group was held at the Department of Revenue for stakeholders and group members to discuss MDOR's second draft of their Report to legislative leaders on the taxation of equine property under current law.
Overall, the meeting went very well. The Department made clear that they carefully considered the strongly articulated views of the Minnesota Horse Council (MHC), Farm Bureau and individual stakeholders in the equine industry as well as the survey input from assessors across Minnesota. We won a major victory by persuading MDOR to issue statewide guidelines stating that pasture is to be considered an agricultural product if at least 10 acres of it are used to graze horses on a horse boarding property. MDOR drew the line at recommending that riding lessons and horse training be allowed as agricultural activities that are critical to horse boarding, but only because that is viewed by the Department as making improper policy recommendations. That, they say, is for the legislature. But property tax division leadership is willing to work with us on language to introduce next session to change the property tax statute to specifically allow such activities, which everyone agrees could clarify and simplify classification by assessors.
At tonight's meeting of the MN Stable Owners Association and other interested persons together with area legislators, we'll offer some more detail and begin the discussion over what language, exactly, would best accomplish what we need in the statute and be most likely to result in "consensus legislation" that will pass without opposition. We are hopeful, after yesterday's meeting, that MDOR will be our partner in achieving that goal--not by advocating for it but by helping us introduce the right language to accomplish it without running into disagreement over interpretation of any changes.
Thanks to everyone who provided input on the draft guidelines and report! We have made great progress, but in some ways our work is just beginning.
Allison F. Eklund, JD, MA
