Crawford County Auditor Joan M. Wolfe, is hosting an informational meeting 7 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Crawford County Fairgrounds Youth Building, 610 Whetstone Street, Bucyrus.

The topic of discussion will be the State of Ohio’s increases to farmland enrolled in the Cument Agricultural Use Value (CAUV) Program.

CAUV values are calculated bf the State of Ohio Department of Taxation for each of 3,500 soil types. The CAUV soil rates allow land to be taxed based on its agricultural value rather than fair market value. The formula is based on five factors including yield infomation, cropping patterns, crop prices, ron-land production costs and the capitalization rate. CAUV values are updated every three years.

In Crawford County, values will be updated with the 2015 Update which will become effective on those properties’ 2016 tax bils. Tax rates and, therefore, the new property taxes due, will be not available until mid-December.

Richard H. Hoffman, ASA, MAI, CAE, CRE, of Appraisal Research Corporatbn, and Rid( Hoffinan, Esq., of Local Government Services, will speak about the history of Ohio’s Current Agricultural Use Valuation (CAUV) program and discuss the factors behind the increases in CAUV values.

At the request of agricultural producers, the CAUV Program was initiated in 1979. The program’s goal was to encourage producers to keep their land productive by valuing the land based on the soils’ productivity rather than on its market value. Farmland used for commercial agricultural production can be enrolled in the program for a one -time $25 fee.

ProdLEtion costs and output have sinificantly increased since the program’s inception. Therefore, since 2005, the State of OhWs Department of Taxation has been working with numerous agricultural groups to update the production and valuation criterion tkEt is_used for valuating commercial farmland.

For additional information about the CAUV program or to enroll, you can call the Crawford County Auditors’ office at 419-562-7941.