Decades-long conservation easement issue still unresolved

The year 2020 had such promise for the hundreds of Coloradans, primarily farmers and ranchers, who hoped that this would be the year that the state would resolve the decades-long issue over denied tax credits for conservation easements.

But concerns over the cost, and the pandemic-shortened legislative session, put an end to the legislation that would have started down that path.

This week, state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, will begin afresh with legislation that will deal with one of the three recommendations from a 2019 working group.

Conservation easements have been a tool for preserving undeveloped lands that the state believes should be left wild. The state has granted more than 4,000 such easements over the last 20 years. An easement basically goes under a land trust or a county for preservation. The property owner retains title to the land in exchange for tax credits.

But tax credits for about 800 of those easements were denied by the Department of Revenue. Frequently, the department claimed the land had no value, despite numerous real estate appraisals to the contrary. About $149 million in tax credits were denied, forcing some landowners into bankruptcy and foreclosure. Most of the 800 denied credits were for farm land in southeastern Colorado.

Even though the tax credits were denied, the easements still became the property of the land trusts and counties that accepted them, meaning the landowners got no tax credits and lost the right to develop their lands in perpetuity.

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