From The President

PLA President Keith Klingler on Taxpayer Funded Subsidies

It never ceases to amaze me how private landowners who claim to be conservative property rights advocates can’t resist grabbing the dangling green carrot called taxpayer funded subsidies. These landowners (Mostly large corporate) don’t seem to be satisfied with existing programs, so they are lobbying for more, such as a state forest legacy program. Even though groups like PLA have pointed out how unethical, unaffordable, and bad for the free market system these programs are, some landowners seem determined to wipe out as much of this competition as they can. By consuming as many tax dollars as they can get their hands on, these mostly large land owners see no problems padding their bottom line at our expense. The result is devastating to the competitors of these companies, because with large taxpayer funded checks, they can pay well over appraised value for land that’s on the market. The next step is that they will immediately apply for subsidies for these new lands they’ve purchased, and the beat goes on.

Remember, the biggest subsidy game is conservation easements. This is where development rights are purchased by a Land Trust or Conservancy using state, federal or local tax dollars as the funding source. The question I’ve asked and have yet to get answered, is how does an appraiser determine the value of development rights? I’ve done several small subdivisions in my time and believe me there is enough regulation out there to put most of Pennsylvania’s vacant land off limits to development. First in some areas you have Township subdivision regulations to deal with including zoning. Then you will have country subdivision ordinances to deal with. These are mostly surveyor and boundary line related. Last you have the grand finale called the state sewage facility planning module. In this document you have to prove every lot has an acceptable on lot sewage site. If the soils are determined to be “marginal” you’ll need two approved sites.

This is the most difficult part of the planning module, as our states soil, especially in Northwestern Pennsylvania are not the best for this type of use. Even if your soil pass the test pit & perk test portion other factors may fail your sites such as slope, (must be under 15%), proximity to an oil or gas well, spring or other water course, boundary lines or right of way. Your property must be plotted on topography, floodplain, and wetland maps along with a half dozen pages of other information. This is all based on the assumption that your lots have public road frontage. If road building is necessary then you fall under another host of regulations which will include the federal government. So to those DCNR and U.S. Forest Service employees who think developers can just plop down a subdivision anywhere, therefore government needs to “protect” all the vacant land in PA by buying the development rights, think again. In my humble estimation 75% of PA’s land is off limits to development simply due to current regulations. Just think about the 15% slope issue alone. If the only way you could develop this land is if you had public sewage and water how much is under development threat?

To accurately determine development right value, the applicant should have to prove that the property can pass all the relative regulations pertaining to subdivisions. This would include soil testing with a backhoe on a grid layout over the entire property, I guarantee that none of these things have happened on the land where development rights have been purchased.

Therefore we may never know how much of this land was already off limits to development, and taxpayer’s money was wasted. The answer to this dilemma is simple. Our legislators must place into the application for easement funds the requirements that the development potential must be proven by going through the subdivision process for each property. The only other solution is; eliminate all state and federal taxpayer funding of private easement acquisition. Believe me, PLA prefers the latter.

Pennsylvania Landowners’ Association, Inc.

P.O. Box 391

Waterford, PA 16441

Phone: 1.814.796.4023