Conservation Easement Program potentially bankrupting some land owners

STERLING, Colo. - A state tax program aimed at helping land owners preserve their property and protect it from development, may actually be hurting them. Alan Gentz owns 500 acres of land in the town of Sterling. In an effort to preserve some of that land, Gentz donated 20 total acres of land to Logan County in 2006 and 2007 as part of the Conservation Easement Program. The program allows land owners to donate land to their county or non-profit and receive tax credits in return. Those tax credits can then be applied toward the land owner’s taxes or sold. In exchange for 20 acres, the Gentz’ received almost $550,000 in credits. But now Gentz says the program has turned on those who’ve applied for it and used the program to preserve land. “We already had licensed qualified appraisers appraise the property, we covered all of the ground legally we could do, we didn’t think there could ever be a problem of them passing an ex post facto law to come out and challenge us,” said Gentz. That ex post facto law Gentz claims, came in the form of House Bill 1300. Gentz says the bill is being used to go back to land owners and recover money given away in tax credits after the program showed signs of failure. Gentz had his tax credits later denied because the appraiser on the case had their license suspended. Gentz now has a $1.4 million dollar bond on his recently filed lawsuit against the Department of Revenue that must be paid before his case ever sees the inside of a courtroom. "The State of Colorado bankrupted a lot of farmers and ranchers over this, we know a lot of cases where they've lost their farms, been bankrupted because of HB1300,” said Gentz...more

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