Technology solution to manage Farmland Assessment applications and data. The goal is to provide a cost effective way to gather critical data so that the Assessor can accurately administer the Farmland Program. Online submissions should be viewed as an easier process for the public. Online submissions provide the “data” to the assessor as opposed to a static image of the form. The online environment provides the vehicle for the digital records to be merged with the paper-filed records. Ultimately, the data gathered by the Assessor can be accessed, approved and shared as necessary with stakeholders in the State, specifically Agriculture, Forestry and Taxation who all in some part re-enter the same data. At the request of the Assessor, the Tax Board shall mail a letter to all current recipients of Farmland Assessment, class 3B properties. This “regular mail” is asking the taxpayer to visit the County’s Tax Board Portal, register, and submit the Farmland Assessment data online.

The Assessor (or the Tax Board at the Assessor’s request) will be able to generate the follow-up Paper Farmland Mailing package from the list of “non-respondent class 3B properties. The Paper Farmland Mailing package may include greater personalization of signature and letterhead.

If the municipality receives paper-filed returns for either the regular-mail or the certified-mail the Tax Board staff will, at the Assessor’s request, scan, index and return the paper documents so that the Assessor has a single file of all Farmland Assessment Applications. This data will be available for mapping within the Tax Board Portal. This data will also be able to be exported as an excel file for further analysis.