Among the priorities laid out in Governor Murphy's State of the State address last week, a vow to reform New Jersey's farmland assessment law, which gives landowners a property tax break if the state considers it farmland.

But opponents have long argued the law's requirements are thin and point out that wealthy citizens from Bruce Springsteen to Donald Trump are taking advantage of the rule costing the state millions.

As Ted Goldberg reports, fixing it, though, may not be that simple.

For the past four years, Jack Curtis has sifted through spreadsheets and Google Maps to see if people claiming to be farmers are actually farmers.

This is what I get annoyed about, that these are the size of the houses that these people think they should be getting farmland assessed rates.

Curtis says many people in New Jersey are falsely claiming their properties are farms and getting generous tax breaks because of it.

Farmers are the ones that give us the food.

What I'm against is people who are pretending to be farmers simply to get a 98% tax break.

A 1964 state law allows people to claim their properties or farms if they're at least five acres and have land devoted to agriculture earning 500 bucks a year.

That's the barn that the woman talks about building for her children.

That minimum was increased to a thousand bucks in 2013, and Curtis says that led to a suspicious increase from farms that previously were earning $500 a year.

I offering all of the 155 applications for men in the township.

How much for farm products sold?

A thousand.

1000.

3000.

Seven.

Curtis won't call it fraud because he's not a lawyer.

Liz Thompson works at the New Jersey Farm Bureau and says farms come in all shapes and sizes.

That can be many different things.

Agriculture looks different depending on what you're producing.

And obviously agriculture changes over time.

By state law, land must be examined every three years.

Where Thompson and Curtis agree is that's not an easy schedule to keep, especially when so many tax assessors work part time.

There is always an opportunity to look at the program and make sure that people are in compliance.

But most of that needs to happen at the local assessor level.

My for tax assessor here in Mendham Township is here a half a day a week.

Curtis has ideas like tacking on an application fee to pay for better enforcement or adding an income limit.

Every single entitlement program has an income ceiling.

If you make over X dollars, you don't qualify to get, you know, like Woody Johnson is not going to get food stamps, but Woody Johnson can get farmland assessment.

The owner of the Jets isn't alone.

President Donald Trump has goats in Bedminster, so his golf club there gets tax breaks.

Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen have also sworn under penalty of perjury that they have farms.

Curtis's work got a shout out last week at Governor Phil Murphy's State of the State speech.

Jack, stand up and take a bow.

If our state's law enforcement officers, veterans, nurses and other working people are paying their fair share, so too should those at the top of the economic ladder.

About 36,000 people take advantage of this program.

And Senator Joseph Pennacchio does not believe the Garden State has 36,000 people legitimately farming.

You want to form a commission and people that have a higher paid rate when it comes to stuff like this.

Let us know exactly who these people are and you know, if they're following the law.

Pennacchio has sponsored a bill that would do this.

What I'm afraid of is it's going to be a committee and it's going to meet for six months and then it's going to go on hiatus and then it's going to meet and it's going to be kick the can down the road.

Curtis knows that he might be making powerful enemies.

I don't really care.

I'm old.

You know, I'm I'm approaching the end of my life.

If they don't like what I have, if they don't like honesty, then the problem's on them, not on me.

Curtis estimates that with so many people avoiding taxes, Mendham Township is missing out on more than $1,000,000 a year, and other property owners are picking up the slack with higher tax bills of their own.

In Mendham Township, I'm Ted Goldberg.

NJ Spotlight.

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