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TO: Wisconsin’s Land Trust Community
FROM: Vicki Elkin, Executive Director, Gathering Waters Conservancy
RE: Joint Committee on Taxation Report
DATE: February 14, 2005
I want to provide a brief report on the Land Trust
Alliance's (LTA) plans to respond to the Joint Committee on Taxation's
report that was released January 27, and suggest a number of simple
steps that all of our land trusts should take to weigh in with Wisconsin's
Congressional Delegation. The report recommended several changes
in the tax code that would seriously and negatively affect land
conservation.
Substance of Recommendations:
· The committee proposed that deductions
for conservation easements be limited to no more than 33% of the
easement's appraised value.
· The committee proposed that no deduction be allowed for
an easement on a property used by the taxpayer
as their personal residence.
· The committee recommended that deductions for donations
of property, including donations and bargain sales
of real estate, be limited to the taxpayer's basis in the property,
not the current market value.
Clearly, these changes, if enacted, would cripple
voluntary conservation. For more information on the proposals, including
a statement by LTA President Rand Wentworth, go to www.lta.org.
The Joint Committee on Taxation is an arm of Congress,
but not a typical legislative committee. Its primary job is to tally
up the tax revenue impacts of budget and other legislative proposals,
but it also regularly issues reports on tax policy. This particular
report includes a long list of proposals to increase tax revenue,
not just these anti-conservation recommendations. The good news
is that the senators and representatives who sit on the committee
had probably not reviewed the numerous recommendations before the
report was published. The bad news is that the committee's tax policy
work is widely respected.
The other piece of good news is that in Washington
it is almost always easier to defeat a bad idea than pass a good
one, with one key requirement - that those opposed work hard to
defeat it. What we need is a huge groundswell of grassroots opposition
from land trust folks nationwide.
No bill has been introduced that contains these
proposals, and it is unclear when one might, or how long this issue
might be viable on Capitol Hill. We will all be well served by doing
everything we can to head this off before it ever sees the legislative
light of day.
LTA’s Response:
LTA's strategy is to nip these bad ideas in the
bud before they get legs on Capitol Hill. That means aggressive
work right away to communicate with the House and Senate leadership,
and members of the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means
Committee. Rand Wentworth and others at LTA have already talked
to Finance Committee staff, White House staff, and folks at the
Interior Department. LTA had previously contracted with some influential
Republican tax lobbyists, and is considering bringing on more. They've
formed a "Conservation Defense Fund" to raise money to
support this effort.
What Wisconsin Land Trusts Can do:
Members of Congress need to be educated with real-life
stories of how landowners have been able to protect their land,
maintain ownership, and provide significant conservation benefits
to the public through conservation easements. The following is a
list of what you can do to help with this process.
Personal Contacts with Congressional Leadership
Along with mobilizing a grassroots response to
these proposals (see below), we are looking for land trusts who
have personal relationships with Congressional leadership and the
two committees to meet with them as soon as possible and describe
how these proposals would severely restrict land and water conservation
(meetings with legislators in their home districts are as valuable
as visits in Washington). In Wisconsin, Senator Feingold, now a
Deputy Whip in the Senate, and Paul Ryan, a member of the House
Ways and Means Committee, are our two most influential representatives
on this issue. Paul Ryan represents the 1st Congressional District
which runs from Janesville to Kenosha and up to Franklin, Greenfield
and Mukwonago.
Whether it's staff, board members, landowners,
donors, or volunteers, if anyone has relationships with Feingold
or Ryan, they need to communicate with them right away. If visits
aren't possible, then handwritten letters and phone calls are the
next best things. (It’s always smart, by the way, to “cc”
your own congressperson and Senator Kohl on your communication).
Please let me know if you have any personal contacts
with Feingold and/or Ryan and if you need help setting up a meeting.
Gathering Waters is happy to help you make these arrangements. LTA
has also set up a special e-mail address so that land trusts can
let LTA know what they are doing to help the cause - protectprivateconservation@lta.org.
Gathering Waters Conservancy will schedule a meeting
with Senator Feingold’s and Senator Kohl’s State Directors
as soon as possible. Please let me know if you would like to be
part of this meeting.
Contacts with Other Members of Congress
It is also important to have lots of members saying
to their colleagues in the leadership and on Finance and Ways and
Means, "I'm getting a lot of constituent input on these conservation
proposals from the Joint Committee on Taxation, and it sure would
help me if you would kill them fast." Here’s what you
can do:
- Send an "official" letter on your
organization's letterhead to Senators Feingold and Kohl and to
your Representative. A template is attached. Feel free to edit
to your needs. Enclose photos of fabulous properties protected
through donations of land or easements.
- At your next Board meeting, set aside 20-30
minutes for your board members and staff to hand write letters
in your own words to Senators Feingold and Kohl, your Representatives,
etc.
- Call your landowners, volunteers, and selected
donors and urge them to send a similar letter.
How do I contact my Senators and Representative?
You can search for your Representative's contact
information by your zip code at www.house.gov.
Senators Kohl and Feingold can be reached at the addresses below:
Senator Feingold
506 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5323
russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
Senator Kohl
330 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington,DC 20510
202-224-5653
go to http://kohl.senate.gov/gen_contact.phpl
to send an email
Share a copy of your correspondence with
Gathering Waters Conservancy
Gathering Waters is tracking contacts between
land trusts, landowners and others in Wisconsin and members of our
Congressional Delegation. Please be sure to cc us on your letters
and let us know if you have a personal relationship with any Representatives
or Senator Feingold or Kohl.
Case Studies
I am attaching some case studies that the Iowa
Natural Heritage Foundation put together to demonstrate how the
Joint Committee on Taxation’s recommendation would impact
conservation on the ground. Please let me know if you have a project
that would serve as an effective case study here in Wisconsin. We
hope to put together some similar one-pagers that we can share with
legislators and others.
For more information
Feel free to contact Gathering Waters Conservancy
for more information. I also urge you to check out the Land Trust
Alliance’s website at www.lta.org
for regular updates on what’s going in Washington.
Thanks to all for your prompt attention to this
matter!
Vicki
Download
a sample organizational letter 
To
learn more about this issue, visit the Land Trust Alliance's policy
website.
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