Many Rowan farmers feel they are being gouged on taxes and that county officials don’t care or are simply lying.

More than 150 farmers — too many to fit inside the Atwell Volunteer Fire Department — met Tuesday night to talk about the county’s decision to value farm land at $900 per acre and how they can get it lowered.

Calls of “Vote them out,” peppered the nearly 90-minute meeting.

Farmers agreed to give commissioners until Nov. 6 to deal with the land-use issue, making it clear they are ready to settle the issue at the voting booth or in the courts.

Murray Corriher, a south Rowan farmer who instigated the challenge, said he believes the county is violating state law.

Under state laws, land used for farming gets an exemption from its real value. It is taxed under usage categories, such as cropland and woodland. However, if it is sold for other uses, the owner must pay back taxes for three years on the actual value of the property.

A state schedule, based on soil classification, establishes use values from $11 to $856 per acre.

Under state tax laws, counties can opt to use the state land-use schedule of charges or adopt its own based on the production capability of the land.

Corriher said Tuesday night that neighboring counties base their taxes on values ranging from $200 to $600 per acre, well below the $900 in Rowan.

Iredell officials said they have no cropland with a use-value of $900 an acre. Most of the cropland in Iredell is assessed at about $400 an acre. The remainder falls in the $100 to $244 category.

Last month Rowan Tax Assessor Jerry Rowland said Rowan doesn’t use the state schedule because it is based on different rates for different soil classifications. Rowland said Rowan doesn’t have soil classification maps.

Several people disputed that claim, including Bruce Rider, district soil conservationist.

Rider told farmers that the soil classifications for the entire county have been available for two years. He went on to say that basing value on soil classifications is the best and fairest method.

Corriher met with commissioners in early September and raised the question of the land use rate and asked for a written response.

Corriher said commissioners promised to look into it, but he hasn’t heard anything.

He described a meeting earlier this week with Rowland, the tax assessor. Corriher said Rowland “pulled the figures out of the air and threw them in the face of farmers.”

Commissioner Frank Tadlock, a farmer and businessman from the China Grove area, faced a near-hostile crowd.

Tadlock attempted to defend the commissioners and the land -use value.

Sounding the theme of presidential candidate Al Gore, the Republican commissioner told the crowd, “I’ll fight for you.”

“If you had done that to start with, we wouldn’t be here,” retorted Charlie Hamby. He went on to lambaste the board, and Chairman Newton Cohen specifically.

Hamby said Cohen lied to him and claimed the use value was set in Raleigh. Hamby said Rep. Charlotte Gardner put him in touch with the right officials in Raleigh, who told him the county sets the rate.

Tadlock repeatedly vowed to fight to change the land-use rate if the county has done anything illegal.

Many of Tadlock’s friends and neighbors weren’t buying. They asked a series of questions, apparently trying to pin him down on whether he would fight to lower the rate.

Tadlock never said he believed the $900-an-acre rate is excessive and should be lowered.

When Tadlock said the county is already discounting farm land more than $1.5 million a year, a crescendo of yells greeted him, many referring to recent industrial projects where the county rebated 85 percent of the taxes.

“My farm is 90 percent bull tallow, I need a refund,” yelled Bob Weast. Bull tallow is a dense, clay-like soil found in Rowan that doesn’t allow water to seep into the ground.

Another farmer yelled, “We’re paying the county for the privilege of providing green space for the city folks.”

Tadlock spent most of the nearly 90 minutes taking a barrage of skeptical and unfriendly questions and comments from farmers. He did agree to arrange a meeting, possibly this week, between county officials and Corriher. Tadlock held to the question of legality, not the actual rate.

Three Democratic candidates joined the fray, taking the opportunity to criticize the current all-Republican board and its management. All said the county should lower the use rates.

Lorene Coates, former director of Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, said $900 an acre is too high. She couldn’t offer an explanation of how the county arrived at the figure.

In previous years, she and other top county farm officials and farm leaders met with the tax officials. Coates said they worked out a reasonable schedule of values for farmland, including cropland, pasture land, wetlands and woodlands. She said each category had different rates, depending on its ability to produce.

Coates, now a candidate for the N.C. House of Representatives, urged farmers and commissioners to use farm specialists employed by the county and state to develop fair values.

Leda Belk, a candidate for commissioner, said the $900 rate was included in the values advertised as “Document of Values.”

That drew a spate of charges that the county “camouflaged” what it had done.

Belk agreed with Corriher that the county has not done correct calculations. “The county did not follow the law,” said Belk.

When Tadlock said Belk is promising more services and new programs that will raise taxes, Belk stopped him.

“I’m talking about reallocating money, not wasting money,” said Belk, drawing a round of applause.

Butch Rumple, also a Democratic candidate for commissioner, called on commissioners and county officials to tell the truth.

Tadlock repeatedly tried to shift attention from the tax question to the greater question of farm profitability. He repeatedly brought up funding of schools at state average and blamed the state for numerous problems.

But the farmers weren’t about to let him slip away.

“Get this fixed. Lower land use values,” said Becky Waller, a member of the Atwell Fire Department and organizer of the meeting.

Several farmers brought up the county’s decision to build Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium, with the help of the city of Kannapolis.

Tadlock said he wasn’t on the board when the decision was made but said he is optimistic the county will soon be able to sell it and recoup its money.