Maple syrup producer fights to keep NJ farmland tax assessment
Making maple syrup is not as simple as boiling water.
It requires drilling into and tapping trees, lots of buckets, tubing, freezing, "sheeting" pans and boiling water. Yes, sometimes, there's even outsmarting squirrels.
It has now gotten even more difficult, as some local tax assessors are declaring that maple syrup and related items do not fall under the classification of "an agricultural product" and producers do not qualify for property tax breaks under the state's farmland assessment laws.
Losing farmland status will surely hurt, said Gary Kapitko, who owns a sugar bush — a grove of maple trees, which he taps for maple syrup — on Kerr Road in Frelinghuysen, rents an adjacent property and uses a third parcel in Fredon.