The Lake George Land Conservancy announced that on Friday, February 17, 300 U.S. Representatives, including Representative Chris Gibson (NY-20), have co-sponsored the Conservation Easement Incentive Act. H.R. 1964 makes permanent a recently-expired tax incentive that helps organizations like the Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC) work with modest income landowners to conserve important natural or historic resources in our community.
“LGLC is thrilled that Representative Chris Gibson has joined with so many of his colleagues to make this important conservation tool permanent,” said Executive Director Nancy Williams. “We hope his leadership will guide other Representatives to join with him to vote for this vital legislation which will encourage the protection of working forests and wildlife habitat in the Lake George area and across the nation. We look forward to working with Rep. Gibson to get the bill passed.”
Landowners can retire the development rights on their land by donating a conservation easement to a land trust like LGLC – keeping farm, ranch and forest lands in productive use, protecting important fish and wildlife habitat, and conserving our scenic and historic heritage. Since the incentive expired at the end of 2011, landowners with modest incomes now receive little tax benefit from restricting what may be their family’s most valuable asset. By allowing donors to deduct a larger portion of their income over a longer period of time, H.R. 1964 will help thousands of family farmers, ranchers, and forest owners afford to conserve their land.
As an example, under permanent law, an agricultural landowner earning $50,000 a year who donates a conservation easement worth $1 million could take a total of no more than $90,000 in tax deductions. Under the expired incentive, that landowner could have taken as much as $800,000 in tax deductions – still less than the full value of their donation, but a significant increase.
“We are thrilled that majorities of Republicans and Democrats can agree on supporting the work of local land trusts like the Lake George Land Conservancy that are so important to their communities,” said Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance, which represents 1,700 land trusts nationwide. “We look forward to working with Representative Chris Gibson to restore this important conservation tool.”
The full list of 300 co-sponsors is available at www.lta.org/easementincentive/cosponsors. They include the Chairman, Ranking Democrat and 32 of 37 members of House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax measures. A broad coalition of sportsmen, outdoor enthusiasts, farmers, ranchers and national conservation groups are working together to make this incentive permanent in the 112th Congress.
Founded in 1988, the Lake George Land Conservancy is a nonprofit land trust dedicated to working with willing landowners and other partners to protect the world-renowned water quality of Lake George and to permanently preserve the natural, scenic, historical and recreational resources of the Lake George region. www.lglc.org.