Land Tax Amnesty Debated in Senate

Mark Lizarraga

The senate met in its final session for this five-year term this morning.  Parliamentarians in the upper house bade farewell to each other and President Darrell Bradley, as there is no certainty who will be returning in that capacity following general elections in November.  While the atmosphere was lighthearted, the issue of the Land Tax Amendment Bill raised a few objections from several senators, including Mark Lizarraga, who did not support the idea of providing tax relief for land owners who are speculating or habitually delinquent in their payments.

Mark Lizarraga, Business Senator

“I totally understand and agree with the concept of lending and rendering relief to those people that have suffered destruction, that have suffered economic hardships because they were working the land and there was a drought, crops have been destroyed or they may have suffered economic hardships because of the COVID situation.  So they could have lost or are losing because of the lack of opportunity either to sell crops or market conditions, I totally understand that and support it.  And if this were intended to just lend relief to those people that have received hardship or going through hardships and certainly the productive sector, the agricultural sector, I would totally, totally support it. But what we absolutely cannot condone is the consistent relief to those who hold thousands and thousands of acres of non-productive land in this country and they continue to get relief from this tax burden.  The government needs revenue.”