A significant agricultural land tax rebate approved by the Montezuma County commissioners in July has been denied by the Colorado Division of Property Taxation.

“The ag values have to back to where they were,” said county assessor Scott Davis. “They reversed the commissioners’s decision.”

In July, the commissioners heard from farmers upset by assessed agricultural land values that in some cases more than doubled from 2014.

In their role as the Board of Equalization for the county, the commissioners approved a blanket abatement that capped the increase at 22 percent.

County commissioners said they wanted to challenge the state assessment of local ag land, and said it was unfairly weighted by areas that have higher crop value than Montezuma County.

But Davis said the state property taxation board disagreed with the county’s attempt to drop local land taxes by such a large margin, which included a 92 percent cut for flood irrigated land, and 86.6 percent cut for sprinkler irrigated land, and 65.2 percent cut for dry farmland.

Adjustments in local land valuations by the county that are greater than five percent are reviewed by the State board of Equalization.

“I presented our case, but it fell on deaf ears,” said county commissioner Keenan Ertel. “Some years (the valuations) are more in our favor, and others not so much.”

Davis said the sudden increase is attributed to the way land values are calculated by the state based on a 10-year average of crop production values.

Every year, the two oldest years are dropped off, and the two recent years are added on to calculate the property tax rate.

“The last two years we saw good production value for hay and wheat, and that bumped up the average,” Davis said.

Goodman Point farmer Steve Chappell said his 93 percent tax increase does not correspond to his fluctuating production numbers and shifting commodity prices.

“To get this increase was shocking,” he said.

It was suggested that farmers could organize and submit a class-action protest against the increase.

The commissioners were not surprised their tax relief maneuver was denied, but said they wanted to send a message.

“How do we raise our voices loud enough to let them know in Denver that they are not treating us fairly,” said commissioner Larry Don Suckla.

jmimiaga@the-journal.com