Solar Farms and Farmland Assesment (credit, home, maintenance)

[new jersey mike]

I was just wondering with the way things are twisted and misinterpreted, are solar farms qualifying for farm assessments because of a play on the name?

[TylerJAX]

Will these particular solar panels sprout out from the ground?

[new jersey mike]

I did do some searching and YES a solar farm does qualify for ag/farm assessment.

In my opinion this is just wrong! Solar farms qualify for many tax incentives and credits but farmland should not be one.

Just because a farmer no longer wishes to use the land for ag and ok it was a farm, put a building or solar field up and you can no longer farm. Unless they grow a crop of mushrooms in the shade of the panels.

Face it they will spray roundup or some other herbicide to keep maintenance down and further contributing to polluting the water table. Or they just pave over it and further contribute to the falling water table.

In this day of sustainable living we have to recognize the value of existing developed farm land and bolstering the support of actual farms in the "Garden State".

It is just political BS...

Mind you, I support solar and wind turbines but the tax burden will continue to be pushed/moved away from profitable enterprise to the struggling home owner and small business person and that is just wrong.