Opinion ID: 2428184
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the agricultural use exemption

Text: For land to qualify as open space land, and thus to fall under the agriculture use exemption, the land must be devoted principally to agriculture or to the production of timber or forest products. Tex.Tax Code § 23.51(1) (Supp.1991). The purpose of this provision is: To promote the preservation of open space land ... devoted to farm or ranch purposes ... [or] timber production ... Tex. Const, art. VIII, § 1-d-l. Naturally, it is in Gifford-Hill's interest for Wise County to continue to tax its land as open-space land without regard to the valuable limestone reserves. But Wise County was concerned with the prospect of a 2,500 acre hole when Gifford-Hill concludes extracting all of the commercially available limestone from this property. That concern, together with the pressures of a tight budget and a shrinking tax base, led Wise County to hire an independent company to appraise the mineral estate underlying Gifford-Hill's property. The appraiser valued the limestone reserves at 10 million dollars. On appeal, the tax appraisal review board reduced this valuation to 7.5 million dollars. Gifford-Hill does not contest this valuation. [1] Instead, Gifford-Hill urges that since it runs some cattle on the surface estate, it is entitled to an agricultural use exemption covering both the surface and mineral estates. That contention compels this court to decide whether a mining company can take full advantage of the agricultural exemption by running livestock on the same property from which it is extracting minerals. [2] The majority agreed with Gifford-Hill's position; but I believe that at most Gifford-Hill should be allowed an agricultural use exemption for the surface estate alone. To grant them an agricultural exemption that extends to the mineral estate would flout the equities of this case and contravene the Texas Constitution and applicable state statutes.