Idle Megla-Rich GOPers use TN Greenbelt tax break intended for working dirt farmers

[doeriver]

July 26, 2009
Wealthy use tax break meant for farmers in Tenn.
Billionaire hospital executive Thomas Frist Jr. is one of a number of wealthy Tennesseans taking advantage of a property tax break intended to help farmers.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TN_BILLIONAIRES_TAX_BREAK_TNOL-?SITE=VABRM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Nashville's WTVF-TV reports Frist got a more than $68,000 property tax break this year on his 10-bedroom mansion, with its swimming pool and private gardens, thanks to the state's 30-year-old Greenbelt Law.

Frist applied for a tax break under the forest provisions of the law, which requires a forest management plan approved by the state forester.

Frist's plan? Harvest any dead or dying trees while letting the rest grow.

Stan Chervin, the author of a recent study by Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations that looks at the use of the Greenbelt law, said it has reduced the tax base in several counties by almost 20 percent.

Chervin said developers bought one property on Old Smyrna Road in Brentwood for $9 million, then used the Greenbelt law to get a 99 percent tax break. That tax money could have been used to pay for government services like schools and police, he said.

Chervin is recommending lawmakers consider tightening controls on the Greenbelt law so that it's helping only those it was intended to help.

"I'm saying, 'Look at it again and see if you really want these huge tax breaks for people who are clearly not farmers,'" he said. "Mr. Frist — if I were his financial adviser, I'd tell him to do the same thing."

Davidson County Property Assessor George Rooker said eyebrows were raised around his office by the application to put much of Frist's 50-plus-acre estate under Greenbelt.

"It's a piece of property that typically one would think of as more a residential type use," Rooker said.

For Frist, who has been repeatedly listed among the "Forbes 400" richest Americans, the exemption has meant cutting the appraisal of his property from more than $16 million, to less than $10 million.

[SharonAnn]

1. Wealthy Frists again on the government dole. And $1.2 Billion in Medicare fines in 2001-2002

and another $.5 billion later.

They got rich off Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The total $1.7 Billion they paid in fines for fraudulent billing should have made the public sit up and pay attention! But they didn't!

Now we find out that the Frist's have another scam on the government.

They're just addicted to stealing from the regular taxpayer. That's apparently their business model.