Marginal Property Tax Effects of Conservation Easements: A Vermont Case Study
研究保护地役权对财产税率的短期和长期影响，基于佛蒙特州29个城镇的数据，发现短期税率上升但长期中性或降低。
Conservation easements allow landowners to transfer their land's development rights to another entity, usually a nontaxable conservation organization. Conservation reduces the town's tax base, necessitating a tax rate increase to maintain service levels. However, conserving land also decreases the supply of developable land and provides open space amenities that may be capitalized into the value of nearby properties. These effects may offset the decrease in the tax base caused by the easement. Using a sample of twenty‐nine Vermont towns, we show that private conservation easements increase property tax rates in the short run, but are tax‐neutral or tax‐suppressing in the long run.