We are back for the second half of the legislative session! This was a much slower start to the second-half of session, especially compared to the first-half which began at breakneck speed. Reports are shorter this week as committees are just starting to meet, but we anticipate a faster pace over the next five weeks (but with fewer bills.) Please read below for important updates, and feel free to reach out with any questions.

Bill Updates:

DEI

Childcare

Property Tax

SB 1 - Sen. Travis Holdman (R-Markle) kicked things off in Ways and Means with a brief description of the bill as it passed out of the Senate chamber. The Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) also presented a quick presentation of an overview of the amount of debt at a local level and how rates increase that debt. This was followed by 42 people that signed up to testify on the bill.

Sen. Holdman shared that the spirit of the bill is summed up in a couple main concerns. He shared that there is an enormous amount of debt that local governments have now accumulated. Local governments now rush to finance at 100% of the cost for new projects. He believes SB1 is a response to this problem.

He also shared the importance of the increased expansion of the local government transparency portal included in the bill. This portal will allow property taxpayers to look in real-time at how a local tax increase or project referendum would directly affect them prior to going to the ballot to vote on such a project.

He also shared the importance of the SB1 referendum changes, highlighting that there still needs to be work around the actual question of the referendum. Right now the attempts to make the question clearer for voters to completely understand what they are voting on has created a very lengthy question, often over 2 pages long. He fears this means people decide not to read or vote on the question. Sen. Holdman also covered the two-year cooling off period that has been added to any municipality that tries to rush a bond project this session as they are working on this bill. In 2028, the bill creates a new calculator for the maximum levy growth quotient (MLGQ).

The committee did refer to Page 3 of the fiscal often as a reference to how this bill will or will not affect taxpayers property tax bills.

Sen. Holdman did remind everyone that the 7% statewide increase coming to all property tax bills across the state this calendar year is already done. There is nothing that the legislative body can do today or this session to curb that increase in those bills.

Several committee members commented on the fact that even if this bill did nothing as far as savings to the taxpayers’ next couple of property tax bills, it is a very important piece of legislation because this bill stops the growth of debt that the taxpayers are held responsible for. The idea of the reform in this bill is to curb the growth.

Chairman Thompson asked DLGF to make a short presentation for informational purposes only. This was to educate the public and lawmakers about the current debt levels across the state. They also shared that the growth rate has increased for this new debt at all levels of local government.

Jason Johson, Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for Governor Braun, spoke about the three priorities that the legislature should have regarding property taxes:

Forty-two people signed up to testify on SB 1. The testimony could be grouped in three buckets:

SB 1 will be heard again in the House Ways and Means Committee at a later date, where Chairman Thompson will be amending the bill to make it look like HB 1402, and he will again allow for testimony on the amended bill. The bill will not be voted on in committee for a few weeks. Here is a summary of the bill in committee this week.

Local Income Tax Council

Here is a link to your live bill tracker.