Madonna's farm causes uproar in the Hamptons
Madonna's newly purchased $4.9 million farm is the latest in a long line of celebrities and billionaires to use the agricultural farm tax credit to slash what they pay in property taxes.
Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, and the E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, all have what people are calling "fake farms." Essentially they have a big enough back yard to grow crops and trees.
In Madonna's case she is using the New York State Agriculture Exception, which lowers her property taxes to 2,260.28 per year.
Local farm stand attendant Patrick Carroll doesn't think celebrities should get the farm benefits, "I think the agricultural subsidies should go to farmers, now I don't want to make an enemy out of Madonna. It was designed to help the farm families not the millionaire entertainer families."
Carroll says there are hardly any farm families left in the area, and for good reason: "financially the land became so valuable and farming is very tough business so you don't make any money."
The tax assets in Southampton and there's roughly 400 designated farms in this area.