Gov. Ned Lamont ordered his administration to hold off on issuing new valuations for agricultural land Monday, bowing to pressure from farmers who argued that the changes would lead to huge tax hikes and force some families to sell their land.

Lamont said that the canceled assessments — which in some cases would have caused the taxable value of farmland to double — were the result of an “unforeseen lack of data” the state had attempted to collect in an effort to determine the going rate for Connecticut’s dwindling amount of available farmland.

The decision will keep in place, for now, recommended land values that were last adjusted in 2020.

NORTH STONINGTON, Conn. (WFSB) - Connecticut farmers are confronting significant tax increases on their farmland after the state Department of Agriculture’s latest reassessment, with some properties seeing taxes triple.

Farmers Express Deep Concern over Assessed Farmland taxes under PA 490, the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture serves up an increase of up to 2300%

“Something that should have been straightforward and easy and done with by now is a disastrous mess,” he said, adding that he’s lost trust in USDA and its programs.

DellaCamera, who grows vegetables on 125 acres in North Branford, near New Haven, saw much of his crops wiped out by a hailstorm in August 2024.

In September, the Northford farmer made headlines when he drove his tractor from Connecticut to the U.S. Capitol after a hail storm ripped through his farm. His mission: to secure emergency federal funding for smaller farmers like him. A week ago, as he walked by his fields — they’ll have ripe strawberries in about a month — he mused about another trip to the nation’s capital some time in the future, perhaps hoping to make a similar pitch. But when he heard the U.S. secretary of agriculture would testify in the upcoming week, he moved up the timeline and changed his plans.

If you joined us at Farm Aid 2024, you might have seen Will Dellacamera’s tractor, which he drove across his home state of Connecticut and all the way to Washington, DC, in an effort to rally support and policy change for farmers like him who suffer damages from extreme weather. You may have met Will or heard his story on the FarmYard Stage in the HOMEGROWN Village or at our Farmer Forum the day before the festival. Maybe you’ve been wondering if his epic journey — inspired by the farmers of the American Agriculture Movement, who drove their tractors across the country to DC in 1979 — resulted in any change. We’re excited to share that it did!

“I forewarned everybody because I have friends that were in the Connecticut River Valley when they got destroyed last year,” DellaCamera said. “I told all my friends, ‘there will be a day where my farm gets destroyed and that will be the worst day of my life, but that will trigger me to do what I’m doing today, because I am going to fight every step of the way to get what we deserve.’”