Sponsor pulls business rendition bill after assessors and counties raise objections

Representative Robin Lundstrom brought a bill seeking to change requirements for business personal-property renditions. Testimony from county assessors and the Association of Arkansas Counties led the sponsor to pull the bill for more work.

Russell Hill, Washington County assessor, and other county assessors described the current process of business renditions as time consuming but important to accurate valuation. Hill explained that some larger businesses pay an alternative rate (example cited as $1.25 per square foot) rather than complete the detailed inventory form; for many smaller businesses the rendition is how assessors obtain accurate furnitures, fixtures and equipment listings. If the requirement were removed, assessors warned they would be forced to "force assess" businesses using square-foot multipliers and templates from the Arkansas Assessment Coordination Department, a method they said produces less accurate values and more clerical workload.

Hill said removing the rendition would increase assessor workload because they would need to identify businesses that failed to report, apply square-foot proxies, and then reconcile cases where businesses disputed values. Shannon Sharp (witness) asked the sponsor to pull the bill for more stakeholder work; Representative Lundstrom agreed and pulled the bill from consideration during the committee meeting.

The transcript records assessors' unanimous opposition to the current bill draft. Representative Lundstrom said the topic will return for further work and that the bill "will not go away," but she pulled it at the committee meeting so sponsor and stakeholders could negotiate changes.