Gov. Bill Ritter on Tuesday named five people to a new panel established to prevent abuses of the state’s land-preservation tax- credit program.
Named to the Conservation Easement Oversight Commission:
• Daniel Pike, president of Colorado Open Lands, a 25-year-old land trust.
• R. Jay Winner, executive director of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District in Rocky Ford.
• Martha Cochran, executive director of the Aspen Valley Land Trust.
• Mark Weston, vice president of Hunsperger & Weston, who is a certified real-estate appraiser.
• Max Vezzani, a cattle rancher in Huerfano County who has used conservation-easement tax credits.
Four more commissioners will be appointed by the board of Great Outdoors Colorado, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado agricultural commissioner.
The commission, created by House Bill 1353, will meet at least once a quarter to review applications for conservation-easement holder certification.
The bill calls for several other measures to thwart abuses to the conservation-easement program, including increased accountability for conservation-easement appraisals and creating a one-year holding requirement mirroring the IRS limitation on the value of a conservation contribution for property held less than a year.
The legislation was passed after a Division of Real Estate investigation revealed more than $100 million in suspect tax credits and resulted in the revocations of three real estate appraisers charged with overvaluing easements to increase tax credits.
Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com
