The New York Farm Bureau hopes that a bill approved in the state Senate that would limit hikes in farm land assessments to two percent a year will also pass in the Assembly before lawmakers close their session and go home.

“Farmers have been seeing alarming increases in their property taxes for farmland because of increases in their farmland assessments or ‘agricultural assessments,’” says a NYFB statement issued Tuesday.

The bureau says it is asking for a two percent cap on the increase in agricultural assessment values from the prior year.

The NYFB said it is hoping that the bill sponsored by Sen. Patty Ritchie (R-Heuvelton) in the Senate and approved there, which would limit assessments increases to two percent a year, will get some traction and pass in the Assembly and be signed by Governor Cuomo.

Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush (R-Black River) appeared at a Farm Bureau news conference Tuesday to speak in favor of the plan.

“In these final days of session, we must take a bold stance and show our family farmers, the job-creators of our rural communities, that we stand by them by passing the two-percent ag assessment cap,” said Blankenbush, the ranking Republican member on the Assembly Agriculture Committee whose district includes southwestern St. Lawrence County.

“New York does have a 10 percent cap currently in place, which is mitigating extreme and forceful increases in base rate values, but this is only a minor moderation,” the statement said.

The bureau said that New York established its agricultural assessment program to keep rising property assessments, particularly in high-pressure development areas, from forcing farmers out of business and eroding acres of open, working green space from the state’s landscape.

But “while the tax rate may not increase, the higher assessed values will be the factor that drives farmland property taxes higher until they reach unsustainable levels,” they said.

New York farmers pay $38.41 per acre in property taxes, according to figures the Farm Bureau cited from Farm Credit East. That is “the second highest rate in the country and eats up 15 percent of a farm’s net income. This puts farmers in this state at a clear competitive disadvantage.”

“This bill has already passed unanimously in a strong bipartisan show of support in the state Senate, and New York Farm Bureau is hoping lawmakers in the Assembly will support the state’s hard working farmers in these final weeks of the legislative session. While this will address the immediate needs of our farmer members, New York Farm Bureau is also advocating for the establishment of a working group comprised of stakeholders and experts to address the long term problem of agricultural assessment valuation,” the Farm Bureau statement said.