Millstone candidates agree on hot issue in Senate race Changing farmland assessment guidelines could be harmful BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer MILLSTONE - Township Committee candidates weighed in one of the hottest topics in the Senate race. In her campaign for Senate, Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth and Mercer) took aim at rival Sen. Ellen Karcher (D-Monmouth and Mercer) for having her Marlboro property farmland assessed. Under the provisions of farmland assessment, landowners pay full property tax on any house on their lot but pay minimal tax on land being farmed. Karcher claims that she sells Christmas trees on her 8.7-acre property and that the land has been farmed by her family for hundreds of years. She admitted to failing to report on her legislative financial disclosure form until a few months ago the annual $500 to $1,000 income she says her family makes from the sale of trees. She also stated that she pays $25,000 a year in property taxes. Beck has claimed that the property should not be farmland assessed and that Karcher owes more than a quarter of a million dollars in back taxes. Township Committee candidates were asked this week about their views on the state's farmland assessment program. Republican Robert Kinsey said, "Farmland assessment is very valuable in helping keep our rural community green, and I support it as a tool to encourage agriculture and control development." The minimum acreage that farmland assessment can be applied to is 6 acres, according to Kinsey. "The use of that minimum acreage is what concerns state and local advocates of the farmland assessment program," he said. "Farmland plans put in place by landowners need to be administered and maintained so as not to circumvent the spirit of the program." Kinsey also noted that in order to be eligible for the assessment, a property must yield $500 worth of annual agricultural production. He said that figure was established in 1964. "The focus of the farmland assessment program is the use of the farmland, not the amount of money derived," he said. "Therefore, any adjustment of this amount is insignificant in the grand plan of the farmland assessment program." Democrat William Nurko said that Millstone Township has an agricultural history. According to Nurko, farmland assessment helped control development and preserve open space and the rural nature of the community as the master plan and zoning changed over the years. "Agricultural subdivisions for the creation of farmettes in Millstone Township have been promoted as a way to create and preserve open space," he said. "Larger lots, with a minimum size of 6 acres, minimize the building of additional roadways, maintain our rural character and help the environment through agricultural or horticultural uses." Nurko said the New Jersey Farmland Assessment Act of 1964 set forth the requirements for qualification and that revisions to the act in 1995 relate to boarding, rehabilitating or training livestock. He also noted that if the land qualified under the act changes to a nonagricultural or nonhorticultural use, it is subject to rollback taxes. Nurko said he does not see the need to raise the $500 minimum income or the minimum acreage guidelines for a property to be farmland assessed based on the benefits to the environment, open space, quality of life and rural character. "We need to provide an incentive for the property owner in order to reap the other positive benefits to the community, rather than just another increase of taxes to the property owner," he said.