Farming the government: New Jersey’s broken farmland assessment program helps the wealthy while we go broke • The Jersey Vindicator

Higher property taxes, more sprawl, and less protection for real farms

When you drive around New Jersey and see a self-serve box that says “take firewood, leave $10,” or roadside stands selling a few vegetables, strawberries, or ears of corn, you may think you are looking at small farms struggling to survive. In some cases, you are. But in many others, you are looking at one of the biggest tax loopholes in New Jersey — a system where wealthy landowners, corporations, and developers are “farming the government” instead of farming the land.

We now have more acres enrolled in farmland assessment than we actually have active farmland. We also have the highest property taxes in the nation. They get the tax breaks, and we get higher taxes.

Drive through places like Bedminster or Colts Neck, and you will find mansions the size of high schools sitting on sprawling estates enrolled in the farmland assessment program. Some properties worth tens of millions of dollars receive tax breaks exceeding 90 percent of the land value simply by selling small amounts of firewood, hay, honey, Christmas trees, agricultural products, or hobby farms with a few horses. In some cases, neighbors sell wood back and forth to each other on paper just to qualify.

The Farmland Assessment Act was created to preserve real farms and protect open space, not subsidize mansions, golf courses, corporate campuses, and speculative development schemes. Yet many of New Jersey’s wealthiest families, major corporations, and developers have manipulated the system for decades.

Some of the state’s biggest developers use farmland assessment as a land-banking strategy. They hold thousands of acres at artificially low tax rates until they are ready to pave them over with luxury housing developments, warehouses, office parks, and strip malls. In some cases, developers have qualified for farmland assessment simply by selling wood cleared from future development sites. That is not farming — that is gaming the system.

I once worked for former U.S. Senator Fred Harris, who used to say , “It’s not how well you farm the land, it’s how well you farm the government that counts.” That quote perfectly describes what is happening in New Jersey today.

Fake farmers and real tax burdens

The real problem is not just abuse of the program — it is who pays the price for that abuse.

When multimillion-dollar estates and corporate properties get massive tax breaks, the tax burden shifts onto middle-class homeowners and working families. Every time a fake farm gets a sweetheart assessment, other taxpayers have to make up the difference through higher property taxes. We have the highest property taxes in the U.S., and with these tax breaks, we pay even more.

Under current law, a property owner only needs five acres of land and a minimal annual income to qualify. Woodland can qualify with as little as $500 in annual sales. In 2012, when the threshold was raised from $500 to $1,000, I called it “fake farmer reform.” It was barely reform at all — the equivalent of selling a few extra Christmas trees or cords of wood . We also have hobby farmers with a few horses who are qualifying for major tax breaks.

When the program was created in 1960, the $500 income requirement would equal roughly $5,600 today adjusted for inflation. Instead, New Jersey still allows massive tax breaks with minimal standards.

After the fake reform, the number of farm-assessed properties stayed virtually the same at 36,742, while the number of farm-assessed acres actually increased by roughly 3,500 acres between 2015 and 2016, reaching nearly 970,000 acres or 18% of New Jersey land.

Meanwhile, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, New Jersey only has about 700,000 acres of active cropland, pastureland, and woodland management lands combined. We literally have more land receiving farmland assessments than actual farmland being farmed or logged.

Other states have much stronger standards. New York requires at least 10 acres and $10,000 in legitimate agricultural income to qualify, similar to stricter farmland preservation standards in states like New York.

The abuse is widespread

Prominent individuals, celebrities, politicians, and corporations have all benefited from loopholes in the system:

Donald Trump has maintained a farmland assessment on portions of his golf club property in Bedminster through hay production and goats grazing on the property.
Bruce Springsteen has utilized the assessment on his Colts Neck horse farm.
Jon Bon Jovi qualified through honeybee production.
Woody Johnson has benefited from assessments on large estates in Bedminster.
Steve Forbes has received farmland tax benefits for cattle operations on his estate.
Christine Todd Whitman has faced criticism over farmland assessments tied to family properties.
Jon Runyan reportedly qualified through firewood sales and livestock.
Billionaire financier Michael Price famously paid only a fraction of normal property taxes on large tracts in Bedminster because of farmland assessment rules.
Former Congressmen Rodney Frelinghuysen and Scott Garrett have also reportedly benefited from farmland assessment programs.

Corporations have also taken advantage of the system:

ExxonMobil has received reduced assessments on research facilities.
Merck has benefited from assessments on land surrounding office campuses.
Bank of America properties associated with former Merrill Lynch holdings historically benefited from the program.
PSE&G has held thousands of acres under farmland assessment.
Six Flags Great Adventure has used farmland assessment for undeveloped property surrounding the theme park.
Toll Brothers and other developers have used the program to hold future development sites at drastically reduced tax rates.
Hercules Chemical, including a contaminated toxic site in Morris County slated for large-scale development.

There were even cases where corporations planted decorative fruit trees, wildflowers, or soybeans outside office buildings to help qualify for farmland assessments. At one corporate office complex in Woodcliff Lake, fruit trees near outdoor eating areas reportedly helped support farmland tax status claims. In Hopewell Township, Merrill Lynch reportedly planted soybeans between buildings, while Johnson & Johnson used wildflowers around office campuses in Branchburg.

That shows just how absurd the loopholes have become.

If they don’t pay, you will

The assessment loophole

In most states, working farms qualify for property tax reductions based on “current use” value instead of development value. The idea is to preserve farming. But in New Jersey, the loopholes are so weak that fake farmers exploit the system.

The fake farmer problem

Wealthy landowners and developers buy large tracts of land and put a few horses on the property, grow minimal hay, sell some firewood, or keep bees in order to qualify for a farmland assessment.

The result is that their property taxes plummet by 90 percent or more, even if the land is primarily being held for future development or used as a private estate.

The tax shift

Municipalities rely on a fixed amount of property tax revenue to fund schools, roads, emergency services, and local government.

If property values in the farmland assessment category are artificially suppressed, the tax base shrinks. To make up for the lost revenue, local governments raise taxes on everyone else. Homeowners, renters, and small businesses end up subsidizing wealthy landowners and developers gaming the system.

The county equalization formula

The problem gets even worse through county equalization formulas.

Counties calculate the assessed value of all property in municipalities compared to actual market value. When large amounts of land receive deeply discounted farmland assessments, towns artificially appear to have fewer ratables.

To compensate, county tax formulas can shift more of the burden onto urban and suburban communities where properties are assessed at full market value.

That means residents in cities and inner suburbs often end up helping subsidize tax breaks for sprawling estates and speculative development land in wealthy rural towns. The towns’ share of the county tax levy go up.

Weak rollback penalties encourage sprawl

The loopholes get even worse when farmland is finally developed.

Under current law, if farmland is converted into housing developments or commercial projects, the owner only pays rollback taxes for the current year and the previous two years. That penalty is laughably weak compared to the enormous profits developers make when they cash in farmland for sprawl development.

The rollback period should be extended by at least 10 more years, and half of those funds should go directly into farmland and open space preservation programs.

Right now, the system rewards speculation and the faux farmer instead of preservation.

We need real farmland protection

New Jersey needs serious reforms if we truly want to preserve agriculture and stop runaway sprawl.

We need:

Stronger income and acreage requirements for qualification.
A much longer tax rollback period when land is developed.
Part of the rollback tax revenue to be used to preserve farmland.
The release of the $419,502,000 the State Agriculture Development Council has been sitting on, to preserve farms.
To expand and simplify transfer-of-development-rights programs.
Rules stating that if the primary use of the property is an office park, research facility, or corporate campus, it should not qualify for farmland assessment.
Agricultural zoning that protects farmland from subdivisions and office parks.
Growth boundaries similar to Oregon’s to stop endless suburban sprawl.

Currently, many farms are still zoned for office parks and subdivisions. That completely undermines the purpose of farmland preservation. We do not zone residential neighborhoods for heavy industry, so why are we zoning farmland for sprawl development?

Instead of paving over rural land, we should reinvest in our cities and towns. We should redevelop abandoned buildings, brownfields, and vacant infill lots instead of extending sewer lines and highways deeper into farmland and forests. Appropriate redevelopment near public transit can reduce pressure to destroy remaining rural landscapes.

Environmental rollbacks are making things worse

The attacks on environmental protections by different administrations are accelerating the destruction of farmland and open space.

Weakening environmental rules, cutting planning funds, streamlining development under the guise of “cutting red tape,” fast-tracking permits, delaying flood and sewer service regulations, and undermining Pinelands and Highlands protections all increase development pressure on rural land.

As farmland disappears, farming itself becomes less viable. The agricultural economy collapses piece by piece. Equipment dealers disappear. Feed suppliers close. Seed distributors move away. Farmers in places like Hunterdon County increasingly have to travel to Pennsylvania for parts and supplies, while farmers in Salem County may need to go to Delaware for seed and equipment.

It is not just farmland we are losing — it is an entire way of life, local economies, scenic landscapes, wildlife habitat, groundwater recharge, and the character of rural communities.

The Garden State is disappearing

Easier to grow warehouses than crops

New Jersey is called the Garden State, but at the rate we are going, children who want to see a real farm or a cow may soon have to leave the state.

New Jersey continues to lose farmland at an alarming rate — nearly 6,000 acres a year — because we have made it easier and more profitable to grow houses, warehouses, and data centers on farmland than grow crops.

In 1950, New Jersey had more than two million acres of farmland. Today, we are struggling to hold onto roughly 560,000 acres of cropland and pastureland.

The current system is broken and is leading to the paving over of our farmland as fast as possible.

Instead of the Garden State, we are becoming the Sprawl State.

The state has performed a disappearing act on our farmland. Every year, more fields become warehouses, data centers, McMansions, big box stores, highways, and strip malls. Preserving rural land and open space is not just about scenery — it is essential for clean water, flood protection, wildlife habitat, climate resilience, and quality of life.

Meanwhile, the state is sitting on $419,502,000 in farmland preservation money while we lose farms to development. That money could save thousands and thousands of acres from the bulldozers.

There have been some recent reforms, including the Woodland Tax Assessment Integrity and Investment Act, signed in 2026, which increased penalties for fraud, expanded oversight, and modernized enforcement. Those changes are a start, but they do not go far enough.

New Jersey keeps this tax giveaway for the wealthy corporations and land speculators while looking to cap and cut property tax rebates for seniors. So “Stay NJ” may go while “Fake Farmer Tax Breaks Stays. “

Until New Jersey closes the loopholes that allow fake farmers, corporations, and developers to exploit the system, taxpayers will continue subsidizing sprawl, wealthy homeowners, and big corporations, while real farms disappear before our eyes. While our property taxes go up even higher.