Sec. 12-81m. Municipal option to abate up to fifty per cent of property taxes of dairy farm, fruit orchard, vegetable, nursery, nontraditional or tobacco farm or commercial lobstering business operate
Sec. 12-81m. Municipal option to abate up to fifty per cent of property taxes
of dairy farm, fruit orchard, vegetable, nursery, nontraditional or tobacco farm or
commercial lobstering business operated on maritime heritage land. A municipality
may, by vote of its legislative body or, in a municipality where the legislative body is
a town meeting, by vote of the board of selectmen, and by vote of its board of finance,
abate up to fifty per cent of the property taxes of any of the following properties provided
such property is maintained as a business: (1) Dairy farm, (2) fruit orchard, including
a vineyard for the growing of grapes for wine, (3) vegetable farm, (4) nursery farm, (5)
any farm which employs nontraditional farming methods, including, but not limited to,
hydroponic farming, (6) tobacco farms, or (7) commercial lobstering businesses operated on maritime heritage land, as defined in section 12-107b. Such a municipality may
also establish a recapture in the event of sale provided such recapture shall not exceed
the original amount of taxes abated and may not go back further than ten years. For
purposes of this section, the municipality may include in the abatement for such fruit
orchard any building for seasonal residential use by workers in such orchard which is
adjacent to the fruit orchard itself, but shall not include any residence of the person
receiving such abatement.
(P.A. 90-270, S. 35, 38; May Sp. Sess. P.A. 92-17, S. 42, 59; P.A. 93-254, S. 1, 2; P.A. 94-201, S. 6, 7; P.A. 07-127,
S. 13.)
History: P.A. 90-270, S. 35 effective June 8, 1990, and applicable to assessment years of municipalities commencing
on or after October 1, 1990; May Sp. Sess. P.A. 92-17 included fruit orchards; P.A. 93-254 included vineyards used for
growing wine grapes and permitted municipality to include seasonal residential buildings in the fruit orchard abatement,
effective June 23, 1993, and applicable to assessment years of municipalities commencing on or after October 1, 1993;
P.A. 94-201 added Subdivs. (3) to (6), inclusive, re vegetable farms, nursery farms, nontraditional farms and tobacco
farmers, effective July 1, 1994 (Revisor's note: In Subdiv. (6) the word "farmers" was replaced editorially by the Revisors
with "farms" for grammatical correctness and consistency); P.A. 07-127 added Subdiv. (7) re commercial lobstering
business operated on maritime heritage land, effective July 1, 2007.