Preserving Open Spaces, Rural Heritage

Promoting land conservation has had long-standing bipartisan support.  This week I reintroduced a bill to permanently extend income-tax relief for farmers and others who donate land for conservation.

Economists say if you want more of something, give incentives to encourage it. Land conservation is something people want.  And farmers already practice good stewardship of the land used for production agriculture.  Conserving land is another example of good stewardship.

The bipartisan bill would make permanent an increase in the maximum tax deduction for charitable contributions of conservation easements from 30 percent to 50 percent of adjusted gross income.  The bill further benefits qualified farmers by making permanent a charitable deduction for up to 100 percent of adjusted gross income for their donations of conservation easements.  Any unused deduction can be carried forward for up to 15 years.

I was able to get the enhanced conservation easement tax deduction enacted in 2006 when I was chairman of the Finance Committee, which writes tax policy. Congress has extended it twice, most recently last December.  The current provision expires at the end of this year.  

The Land Trust Alliance says this incentive has helped America’s 1,700 local land trusts increase the pace of conservation by one-third, to more than a million acres a year.   The group believes the potential would be even greater if the incentive became permanent. 

As a land owner in Grinnell, who donated 240 acres with prairie, oak savannah and meadow for conservation, told the Associated Press, “This is the sort of thing we need to preserve for Iowa’s heritage in the future.”

To watch video of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and the Land Trust Alliance acknowledging Senator Grassley for conservation work, please click here.