Ignorance of the tax law is big excuse, claims farmer.

Patrick J. Green, Lisbon, is angry that he and his family never knew until this year that farmland could be eligible for tax breaks as part of the county's agriculture district.

(Watertown Daily Times 09/12/06).

A self-described "starving rancher" in St. Lawrence County made the news recently in that area with his demand that the government should refund taxes paid by generations of his family after the farmers failed to sign up for tax abatement programs, allegedly because they weren't aware the programs existed.

If this story triggers in your mind the story about the American farmer hating big government but loving those subsidy checks, you're not alone.