City Council Committee Nixes Tax Breaks For Urban Farmers

'If a developer came to you, you'd give out the tax breaks,' Clarke says

A City Council committee on Tuesday killed a bill to grant tax breaks to nonprofit urban farmers after the mayor's office said it would set a bad precedent.

The opposition by the administration of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake outraged Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, a sponsor of the measure.

"I know we give tax breaks to well-to-do developers," Clarke said, her voice rising, after learning that the city's finance department had urged her colleagues to vote against the bill. Urban farmers, she said, "aren't wealthy. They're not well-heeled. They don't hang out and sit with their suits at tables and talk about how they'll help the city. They just do it."

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