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Senate committee approves H.491 yield bill after debate over $77M property-tax buy down and reserve options
Summary
A State Senate Finance Committee approved H.491 as presented by the House, adopting a plan that uses $77 million plus $42 million to reduce property tax yields close to last year’s level while members debated reserving part of the funds and legal limits on education-fund transfers.
A State Senate Finance Committee voted to approve H.491 as sent by the House after members debated options for using $77 million in one-time general fund transfers and an additional $42 million to lower statewide property tax yields.
Committee analysts told senators the combined funding would reduce the statewide average yield to about last year’s level (roughly 13.8 percent on average), and that the House’s version of the bill is roughly 1.1 percentage points higher because it included the cost of universal school meals.
The discussion centered on two competing approaches: use the full $77 million this year to buy down property-tax rates, or divide the one-time money so some is held in reserve for a possible worse fiscal year ahead. Committee staff provided a modeling option that would split the $77 million, placing roughly half in reserve and using the remainder to lower the homestead yield only. Under that model the average…
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