Marion County v. State Board of Equalization’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In 1976, the Legislature, concerned about the threat to open land posed by urbanization and high land taxes, passed an act to encourage landowners to keep their property open. T.C.A. § 67-5-1002. If their open land had taken on an inflated value because of its location and its potential use for residential or commercial development, the act, known generally as the “Greenbelt Law,” allowed the owner to apply to the tax assessor of the county for a classification of the property as agricultural, forest, or open space land. T.C.A. § 67-5-1007. When the property has been so classified, the value for assessment purposes is to be calculated as if that were its highest and best use. T.C.A. § 67-5-1008. Thus, the value of the land used for assessment purposes is not what a willing buyer in an arm’s length transaction would pay for the property if it were not restricted in use ... but is to be based on farm income, soil productivity or fertility, topography, etc. T.C.A. § 67-5-1008(a)(2). If the use changes, the owner is required to pay the taxes that would have been paid on the full unrestricted value of the land, going back three years on agricultural and forest land and five years on open space land.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Batson East-Land Co, Inc. v. Ronnie D. Boyd

2. “[T]here are many different definitions of value. The constitution does not give any clue as to how value is to be determined; instead it leaves the method of determining value to the legislature. Article 2, § 28, Constitution of Tennessee. In T.C.A. 67-5-601, the legislature said: (a) The value of all property shall be ascertained from the evidence of its sound, intrinsic and immediate value, for purposes of sale between a willing seller and a willing buyer without consideration of speculative values, and when appropriate subject to the provisions of the Agricultural, Forest, and Open Space Land Act of 1976, codified in Part 10 of this chapter. ... The State in its brief in this case contends that the definition in T.C.A. § 67-5-601 is of ‘fair market value.’ We are of the opinion that the correct name for this value which the legislature has described is irrelevant; what is important is the same standards be used in all cases in arriving at the value to be used for assessment purposes.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In re All Assessments