Various tax exemptions have crept into the constitution over the decades, costing the state billions in lost revenue each year, officials say. As a result of the limited resources, legislators are unable to respond to the state's shifting, critical needs, resulting in chronic under-funding of other agencies as well. Pushed through the Legislature by Gov. George Wallace and Alfa in 1978, the amendment allows for the assessment of agricultural land at far below market value. The amendment helps small farmers in danger of being pushed off land by rising market values in urban counties. But it has become a huge benefit to large agricultural businesses.
Some local farmers say the law is necessary to protect their livelihoods.
Without it, Alabama's agricultural industry would be dead, said Bryant, whose son Keith is president of the Calhoun County chapter of the Alabama Farmers Federation. But a loophole in the law allows landowners to claim they are using property for agriculture when they are really just speculating for development, revenue department officials say. One of the best examples of this in Calhoun County is the story of Harry Glenn Davis, county Tax Assessor Bobby Rowan said. But these revenues are crumbs compared to those lost through constitutional tax exemptions for businesses, said Bill Bass, director of the Revenue Department's property tax division. Coats, who has a son in college, agrees.