Editorial: Saving land/Go slow on easement reforms

Editorial: Saving land/Go slow on easement reforms: "Editorial: Saving land/Go slow on easement reforms
June 17, 2005 ED0617



The U.S. Senate Finance Committee must be careful to separate the baby from the bath water as it ponders changes in tax treatment of conservation easements this summer.
There is cause to believe some landowners have abused the laws that have allowed them, for three decades or so, to give up specified development rights in return for a tax break sized to the property value they forfeit. The favored anecdotes concern easements obtained for golf courses, back yards and the like"