Lobstermen Might Catch a Tax Break

Here in New York we subsidize, through property tax breaks, people who donate land for conservation, farmers (even gentlemen farmers who do it just for the tax breaks), land owners who engage in certain forestry practices (such as the Aquarion Water Company, which supplies water to lots of Connecticut cities, owns 1,300 acres in my town and pays a fraction of what it would normally pay in property taxes because of its forestry program), and probably others who I can't think of right now.

In Connecticut, the Legislature wants to subsidize through a property tax break, people who fish for lobsters for a living. Here's how the New London Day explained it:

...this spring the legislature cut some of those lobstermen a break, changing state law to require that waterfront residential property used by commercial lobstermen for their work is taxed at a lower rate.

The new law would allow licensed commercial lobstermen to apply to local assessors to have their property classified as “maritime heritage land” — meaning it is valued for tax purposes according to its current use, not the highest value a developer or purely residential owner could expect for the property.

That, supporters say, will help hold down property taxes for the few remaining lobstermen who own waterfront property in the fishing villages of southeastern Connecticut....

While it would cut into revenue to towns, the bill is unlikely to cause much angst, said Lee Vincent, an assistant to the town manager in Groton, since it is limited to full-time commercial lobstermen and narrowly targeted to land and buildings used to support fishing.

A study by the legislature's nonpartisan Office of Legislative Research estimates that just “one or two” lobstermen in each coastal town would qualify for the tax break.