Henderson County Open Space Conservation Bond
This information is from a website set up by folks at Mountain True and others to get the word out about the Henderson County Open Space Conservation Bond that will be on your ballot in a few short weeks. Please read about it so you can be informed when you vote. (submitted by Cindy Ann Bowers)
We’ve lost more than 10,000 acres of farmland in less than a decade. Between 2017 and 2022 alone, Henderson County lost 8,356 acres (nearly 20%) of our working farm and forestlands.
Protecting our working lands is not a partisan issue. Farmers, businesspeople, and leaders across the political spectrum back this bond, including all our local candidates for Congress and NC House.
Q: What is this bond?
A: This Henderson County Farmland Bond is a local investment in protecting the farms, forests, and land we love.
This bond gives Henderson County the tools to keep our working lands working for the farmers who feed us and enable us to enjoy the rural scenery that is part of our community identity.
Q: Why is this needed now?
A: Henderson County is growing fast and losing farmland even faster. Between 2017 and 2022, we lost nearly 20% of our working farms and forests.
Every acre we lose puts our water quality, our scenery, and our rural way of life at risk.
Though we have a voluntary program to help farmers preserve their land while maintaining their rights to farm, inherit, sell, lease, hunt, fish, manage timber, or just enjoy living on the land, that program is underfunded.
The Henderson County Farmland Bond gives us a much needed local funding source for farmland protection. With this bond, we can protect what’s left, and helps us compete for state and federal dollars to do even more.
Q. What type of bond is this and how will it work?
A: This is a 20-year General Obligation bond, which is a common tool counties use to fund big, long-term projects.
This kind of bond is backed by the County’s full faith and credit, which is why voters have to approve it.
Once approved, the County draws down money as needed for approved land projects, and often pays it back faster than 20 years.
Preservation projects will be voluntary, much like our existing farmland preservation program that keeps farms in the hands of landowners who wish to protect them from non-agricultural development.
For a home valued at $450,000, this bond costs about $38 a year in property taxes. That’s a little more than $3 per month to preserve farmland and forests and protect our water quality.
Q. Why is this a good path for tempering runaway development?
A: Farmers and landowners who lease their lands to farmers are under financial pressure to sell their land to the highest bidder. Through the Farmland Bond, our county can better fund voluntary conservation programs that pay landowners a portion of their property value in return for extinguishing non-agricultural development rights and maintain Henderson County’s agricultural heritage for future generations.
Q. How is a bond a useful tool for financing land conservation?
A: General Obligation bonds come with the lowest interest rates, making them the most affordable way to fund programs to ensure we have working farms forever in Henderson County.
Counties across North Carolina have used this same tool for decades to effectively finance land conservation. In fact, NC voters have approved 48 similar conservation bonds over the past 30 years.
Q. What accountability is there for the taxpayers?
A: The money can only go toward protecting working farms, forests, and scenic land. Nothing else. That limitation is set by the law that enables the bonds to be issued.
County Commissioners oversee every dollar, and the County will build on its existing farmland preservation program to bring landowners and land trusts into the process.
The County will provide public disclosure of how funds are spent and administer a public audit every year, so taxpayers can see exactly how the money is spent.
Q: Do other North Carolina counties have dedicated funding for land conservation?
A: Yes.
Over the past 30 years, NC voters have approved 48 similar bonds, raising more than $1 billion for conservation.
Buncombe County passed its own $30 million bond in 2022. It has already protected 2,598 acres of farms and forest. In so doing, these new conservation lands will improve the water quality of rivers, lakes, and creeks while protecting wildlife habitat and natural areas from development. We can achieve similar results in Henderson County through our $25 million bond.
Q: What will happen if the bond does not pass?
A: If this Henderson County Farmland Bond doesn’t pass, more farms and forests will be lost to development.
The County won’t have the money to protect working land.
The County won’t have the money to match and critical leverage state and federal grants. That makes us uncompetitive for grants.
Q: Why is the actual bond language so legalistic?
A: Bond language on North Carolina ballots is highly legalistic because state law explicitly dictates the exact, strict phrasing that local governments must use.
This is the language you’ll see as the last item on your ballot:
HENDERSON COUNTY OPEN SPACE PRESERVATION BONDS REFERENDUM
Yes or No
Additional property taxes may be levied on property located in the County of Henderson in an amount sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on bonds if approved by the following ballot question. SHALL the order authorizing $25,000,000 of bonds plus interest to pay the capital costs of acquisition and improvement of land or interests therein for open space and conservation purposes, including, but not limited to, the protection of natural resources and preservation of farmland and scenic landscapes, including the acquisition of the development rights in the land, and providing that additional taxes may be levied in an amount sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds be approved, in light of the following:
(1) The estimated cumulative cost over the life of the bonds, using the highest interest rate charged for similar debt over the last 20 years, would be $39,028,000 (consisting of $25,000,000 principal amount of the bonds plus $14,028,000 of interest).
(2) The estimated amount of property tax liability increase for each one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) of property tax value to service the cumulative cost over the life of the bond provided above would be $10.10 per year.
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