Cabaldon bill to prevent farmland tax breaks from being exploited to benefit private development passes Legislature 

SACRAMENTO-- Legislation by Senator Christopher Cabaldon (D-Yolo) to prevent developers from exploiting the special tax status of protected California farmland to finance urban improvements passed the Legislature this week with bipartisan support and now goes to the governor. 

SB 5 would prohibit acreage enrolled in the state’s Williamson Act or a Farm Security Zone from being placed in an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) until it is rezoned or reassessed to reflect its future use. 

Under the Williamson Act, local governments enter into contracts with landowners to preserve farmland in exchange for paying lower property taxes. More than half of California’s 31.4 million acres of farm and ranch land is preserved under the Williamson Act. 

EIFDs are a form of tax increment financing that takes a portion of the growth in property taxes created by development and uses it to pay off bonds issued to build roads, sewers, parks, and other infrastructure. The lower the property taxes are when the EIFD is formed, the more money a district can raise as those taxes grow. Because it is taxed at a lower rate, Williamson Act land offers the opportunity to generate more revenue. 

“SB 5 ensures that developers pay their fair share, protects public funds, and upholds the intent of the Williamson Act,” said Jordan Grimes, Resilience Manager with Greenbelt Alliance, an environmental non-profit that has worked for the last 67 years to protect the natural and working lands of nine-county Bay Area. 

Sen. Cabaldon said he was prompted to introduce SB 5 by the proposal by a group called California Forever to build a new city of up to 400,000 people on about 17,500 acres of farmland in Solano County. Much of the land slated for the new city is covered by the Williamson Act, and Sen. Cabaldon said he wanted to make sure it was not used to seed an EIFD to finance the massive infrastructure needed for the project.

“Allowing Williamson Act land like the acreage in Solano to go into an EIFD means that all the revenue the government lost over the years to keep land in farming would now perversely be captured to assist a private development,” Sen. Cabaldon said. 

SB 5 is supported by the American Farmland Trust, the California Farm Bureau, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Greenbelt Alliance, Solano County Orderly Growth Committee; Community Alliance with Family Farmers and the Solano County Democratic Central Committee.

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Senator Christopher Cabaldon represents the 3rd Senate District which includes the cities of Oakley and Brentwood in Contra Costa County; American Canyon, Calistoga, Napa, Yountville, and St. Helena in Napa County; Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Suisun City, Vacaville, and Vallejo, in Solano County; Cotati, Rohnert Park, and Sonoma in Sonoma County; Davis, West Sacramento, Winters, and Woodland in Yolo County; as well as Isleton in Sacramento County.