AP - SANTA BARBARA, California (September 9, 2003) - Five months after an inspection of Jackson’s Neverland Ranch revealed he was getting an undeserved property tax break, county officials apparently are ready to accept the pop star’s offer to remove his house, amusement park and zoo from the agricultural preserve program.

With the encouragement of the state, county officials also are considering punitive action.

“Our goal has been to try to retain as much of that property in agriculture as possible, but there are also some unpermitted uses, so we need to look at that very closely,” supervisor Naomi Schwartz said.

In closed session on Tuesday, the board of supervisors was expected to accept Jackson’s request to get out of his Williamson Act contract. That means his tax exemption will diminish gradually over the next nine years on the developed portions of his 1,040-hectare ranch.

The assessed value of Neverland was about $12 million under the 2002-03 agricultural preserve contract, according to county records. Jackson will owe the county about $123,000 in taxes this year, or 1 percent of the property’s assessed value.

Without the agricultural contract, the assessed value of Neverland would be about $5 million to $6 million more, and Jackson’s taxes would be about $200,000 annually, said Chris Lyon, division manager of the County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor’s Office.

The Williamson Act, which tries to preserve open space by giving ranchers and farmers a tax break on undeveloped land, allows only the property owner to cancel a contract.

Jackson’s business manager wouldn’t discuss the issue: “All of my business is confidential,” Allen Whitman said.