The abuse of legitimate agricultural tax exemptions under Florida’s permissive Greenbelt law continues to be an issue, the Orlando Sentinel reports in the latest take on this problem.
This has been a long-standing problem.
Several years ago it was revealed that Polk County routinely granted these tax breaks to developers with vacant land in urban areas by classifying vacant land along six-lane highways and stalled residential developments with roads and utilities as “hayfields” and “agricultural waste lands” to shield land owners from rightful taxes at the expense of tens of thousands of dollars in local taxes.
This corrupt practice, which state officials have will been unwilling to address, will continue until Florida legislators tighten the law.