Wisconsin Legislative Council
AMENDMENT MEMO
One Ea st Ma in Stre e t, Suite 401 • Ma dison, W I 53703 • (608) 266-1304 • le g.council@le gis.wisconsin.gov • http://www.le gis.wisconsin.gov/lc
Memo published: October 16, 2023 Contact: Anna Henning, Principal Attorney
2023 Assembly Bill 133
Assembly
Amendment 1
BACKGROUND
Wisconsin’s current farmland preservation program, administered by the Department of Agriculture,
Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), encourages the preservation of land for agricultural use in
certain geographic areas of the state. Among other programs and incentives, the program authorizes
municipalities and counties to adopt farmland preservation zoning ordinances. The program also
authorizes DATCP to designate certain areas as “agricultural enterprise areas,” if petitioned to do so by
landowners and local governments, and to purchase agricultural conservation easements from willing
landowners, together with local governments and nonprofit organizations.
Relevant to 2023 Assembly Bill 133, the program authorizes farmland preservation agreements, which
are agreements negotiated by DATCP and landowners to restrict the use of a given tract of land to
agricultural and accessory or open space uses for a given period of time. Under current law, a farmland
preservation agreement must have a term of at least 15 years.
In addition, the farmland preservation law authorizes tax credits for specified categories of qualifying
acres. Under current law, those tax credit amounts are as follows:
$10 per acre for qualifying acres that are located in a farmland preservation zoning district and
subject to a farmland preservation agreement.
$7.50 per acre for qualifying acres that are located in a farmland preservation zoning district but are
not subject to a farmland preservation agreement.
$5 per acre for qualifying acres that are subject to a farmland preservation agreement, but are not
located in a farmland preservation zoning district.
2023 ASSEMBLY BILL 133
2023 Assembly Bill 133 makes the following changes to the current farmland preservation law:
Decreases the minimum term of a farmland preservation agreement from 15 to 10 years.
Requires DATCP to include a review of tax credit amounts in a report it must submit to the
Legislature and certain state agencies every two years.
Expands eligibility for farmland preservation tax credits to land that is subject to an agricultural
conservation easement purchased by DATCP.
1
Increases the amounts of the tax credits that eligible landowners may receive for qualifying acres.
1
However, if only part of a given farm is covered by such an agricultural conservation easement, then those acres must
also be located in certain areas identified in the relevant county’s farmland preservation plan. - 2 -
Under the bill, the tax credit amounts are increased both by increasing the dollar amounts for the tax
credits and by directing the Department of Revenue (DOR) to provide for an additional annual increase
in those amounts based on inflation. Specifically, the bill increases the dollar amounts to $12.50 per
acre for qualifying acres that are located in a farmland preservation zoning district and subject to a
farmland preservation agreement, and $10 per acre for all other qualifying acres. In addition, the bill
requires DOR, in consultation with DATCP, to annually increase those dollar amounts by a percentage
equal to the percentage change in inflation, as measured by an index of prices paid by farmers and
determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
ASSEMBLY AMENDMENT 1
Retains the increases to the dollar amounts for the farmland preservation tax credits, but it removes the
direction to DOR to annually increase those amounts based on inflation.
BILL HISTORY
Representative Oldenburg offered Assembly Amendment 1 on October 5, 2023. On October 11, 2023,
the Assembly Committee on Agriculture voted to recommend adoption of the amendment on a vote of
Ayes, 6; Noes, 4. The committee then voted to recommend adoption of the bill, as amended, on a vote of
Ayes, 12; Noes, 0.
For a full history of the bill, visit the Legislature’s bill history page.
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