Freedom to Farm or Bust

Canada Free Press ^ | 03/07/15 | Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh

[Sean_Anthony]

Liberty Farm, Virginia: A determined American is fighting for her farming rights and indirectly ours against a well-funded environmental Goliath

Virginia, like many other states, offers land preservation tax credits of $100 million a year. Land preservation tax credits are tied to conservation easements which are binding agreements between a land preservation trust (usually a NGO) and a farmer who receives tax breaks in exchange for “legally restricting future development of their property” for a number of years or in perpetuity, as specified in the contract.

Martha Boneta, who was instrumental in passing the two bills now dubbed Boneta Bill-1 and Boneta Bill-2, bought a farm that had a conservation easement which was administered by the Piedmont Environmental Council, a non-governmental organization, and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a state government agency.

[rktman]

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[dljordan]

I’m thinking when the dust is all settled and she’s won her lawsuits some concerned citizens need to open up a can of whoop-ass on the leaders of this particular environmental cult and a few public officials also.

[PAR35]

If you buy a property subject to a conservation easement, you are bound by the terms of that easement. Sounds like she tried to game the system - buy a property subject to the easement at its discounted value, and then use her pull to try to get the easement removed.

Sounds like a typical corrupt politician to me.

And, by the way, I’ve had dozens of cases go to mediation. In none of them did the parties dismiss the action pending mediation. Generally, you don’t need to modify the scheduling to accommodate the mediation; in the rare cases you do, I’ve never seen a judge refuse to stay to allow mediation.