Local Farmer Battles Huge Tax Increase

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

Living in New Jersey, home to the nation’s highest property taxes, William Lammers never thought he would be able to afford his life’s dream: a farm.
That was until he bought a 185-acre farm in northern Berks County in March 2007.

Now more than a year later, Lammers is fighting to keep his dream alive.

Because of what he said is a loophole in the state’s reassessment law, his property taxes have more than tripled in his first year, leaving him with a farm he fears he won’t be able to afford and won’t be able to pass down to his two daughters.

The issue revolves around how Lammers’ property, which is located in Greenwich Township, was reassessed by the Kutztown Area School District.

According to an article this week in the Reading Eagle, Lammers received a letter from the school district in April 2007 which stated their intention to appeal the farm’s assessed value to the Berks County Board of Assessment Appeals.

The farm had been assessed at $300,000 when he bought it, giving him a tax bill of $9,100. Lammers bought the farm for $2 million.

But after a hearing last October, the assessment was increased to $895,600 and his tax bill shot up to $29,600.

Even though “spot assessment,” where a county can pick and choose various properties to reassess is technically illegal, the article states school districts and municipalities can challenge individual assessments at their discretion.

On paper, it may not be called spot assessment, but Lammers disagrees.

“It’s basically spot assessment,” he said. “The implications this has for farming is phenomenal because when the property changes hands, that’s the triggering mechanism where a district can reassess and raise the taxes.”

Lammers is not the only one crying foul. He said the county’s commissioners also disagree with the school district’s decision. In fact, a resolution was passed by the three county commissioners in support of possible state legislation that would restrict assessment appeals to cases in which a property is subdivided or improvements are made.

Lammers has hired an attorney and intends to take his case to court.
He and his wife, Doreen Buchman, are still trying to get the farming operation on its feet. They have eight head of Herefords and also farm alfalfa.

“We’re left with a situation with, what do you do? Nobody will buy a farm with a $30,000 tax bill,” he said. “Pennsylvania touts itself as a rural ag state and yet what we’re doing here is pretty much putting a death knell to farming.”