The problem with Florida's, Geller said, is its vague wording. Other states have passed similar laws that work as intended. The greenbelt law offered a solution by dropping rates for agricultural land. Because citrus trees didn't offer the same returns as new condos, many farmers were forced to either sell their property or risk being priced out. Land was assessed and taxed based on its most profitable potential use, and for the most part, that meant real estate. As former state senator Steven Geller said to me, it was a troubled time for farmers. The greenbelt law dates back to 1959, a time when Florida's swamps and orange groves were first giving way to suburban strip malls and sub divisions. "It's kind of symbolic of a lot of the problems we see with the tax code today," Carl Davis, a senior analyst with Citizens for Tax Justice, told me, "of how needlessly polluted and complicated and loophole ridden it is." But some of the act's biggest beneficiaries are deep-pocketed developers, who often take advantage of it by literally renting cows. The statute is meant to preserve farmland by taxing it at special, low rate.
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