A goat herd is helping Trump pay tens of thousands of dollars less in property taxes on his New Jersey properties
- Because of a state law written to benefit farmers, a goat herd is helping President Donald Trump pay thousands of dollars less in property taxes on his New Jersey properties.
- Estimates suggest that Trump pays fewer than $1,000 in property taxes a year on land that would typically require roughly $80,000 in taxes.
President Donald Trump is able to pay tens of thousands of dollars less in property taxes on his New Jersey golf courses because of a goat herd, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Public records show that Trump has been able to save thousands of dollars in property taxes on his two properties in Bedminster and Colts Neck, New Jersey. Because of his goat herd, as well as hay farming and wood cutting on his properties, New Jersey law permits Trump to receive a farmland tax break.
Therefore, Trump pays reduced property taxes on the parts of his golf courses dedicated to farming.
Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster maintains 113 acres of hay farming and eight goats, and his property in Colts Neck has 40 acres of hay production and trees, according to tax-break applications WSJ reviewed in 2016 during the presidential campaign.
Estimates suggest that Trump pays less than $1,000 in property taxes a year on his two properties hat would typically require one to pay roughly $80,000 in taxes per year, according to The Journal.
The farmland assessment program that Trump is benefitting from was added to New Jersey's constitution in 1963 to prevent overdevelopment in the already-crowded Garden State.
The tax break is considered both popular and controversial in New Jersey, a state that has some of the highest property taxes in the country and is trying to maintain a semblance of its agricultural history as the state's population density continues to rise.
Trump's New Jersey properties, both of which are located in wealthy areas of the state known for their horse farms, were last approved by local tax assessors for farmland assessments in 2015, according to the report.
His qualification under the New Jersey farmland assessment program is not the first time that Trump has received a tax break for one of his properties. Trump famously received massive tax breaks from New York City on some of his most notable real estate projects, including Trump Tower and The Grand Hyatt.
The president is spending his "working vacation" at Bedminster this week.