Slutzky land use idea not well-thought-out

David Slutzky’s plan to eliminate land use tax is not free choice at all for the current landowner, but is government coercion at its worst.
I served on the Virginia Board of Historic Resources for eight years and was its chairman. This is the board that determines whether a property can receive an historic easement. Easements are a totally free-will, no-pressure method of preserving land and structures in perpetuity. Slutzky’s plan calls for “coercion” by local governmentby eliminating Albemarle County’s lower land use tax rate for anyone who does not give, basically, a newly created “land use” easement to the county.
Slutzky is wrong-headed about this scary plan. If the easement is already given to the county and therefore the property cannot be subdivided, what would then be the incentive to convey your easement (that is, the right to subdivide and sell your property) to the Virginia boards that provide for tax deductions in exchange for either historic or conservation easements? As a former chairman of one of these boards, I could not support this plan if it would be in direct competition with my board.
So conservationists and preservationists, beware! Mr. Slutzky’s plan could gut the successful easement programs already in place. He is shortsighted and wrong-headed on this issue.
His ideas are not well-thought-out and therefore he should not be returned to office.

Randolph Byrd
Albemarle County