Committee hears details, timeline and implementation challenges for property valuation changes in H.454

The Finance Committee heard a briefing on property valuation and classification provisions in the education transformation bill H.454, focusing on how the bill would regionalize reappraisals and introduce new property-class categories.

Tax department officials described H.454 as a next step in the state—s reappraisal reforms following Act 68 of 2023. Under the bill as drafted, the state would establish reappraisal assessment districts (RADs) that generally align with county lines, with a few counties combined so the statute produces 12 RADs. Municipalities within each RAD would reappraise on a six-year cycle under a single reappraisal contract, and the RAD structure in the bill would take effect January 1, 2030. The bill also contains transition provisions that limit new individual municipal reappraisal contracts beginning January 2027 and stop the property valuation office from issuing new separate municipal reappraisal orders in 2027.

Why it matters: the change is intended to accelerate the reappraisal schedule (the legislature required a six-year cycle in Act 68 of 2023) and to achieve efficiency by having contiguous places reappraised together under a single contract. Committee members and staff said regional contracts are meant to reduce the long reappraisal intervals that currently exceed 10 years in some places.

Implementation tasks and timelines described by staff include an administrative study of classification rules and second-home identification, a December 2026…