House defeats $20 million amendment, passes bill extending tax reduction for retired officers and survivors

The North Dakota House on April 20 rejected a $20 million Appropriations Committee amendment to Senate Bill 2093 and then approved the underlying bill, which extends an income tax reduction connected to retired peace officers and certain surviving spouses, by a final vote of 83 yea and 11 nay.

Representative Kepinek, the bill carrier, told colleagues the current floor debate returned the bill to its form as it left the Finance and Tax Committee and noted the measure grew from a 2023 law (Senate Bill 2147) that originally established the tax carve-out. Kepinek said the House Appropriations change removed the finance-and-tax amendment; the chamber then debated whether to restore that amendment before defeating the Appropriations Committee language.

The defeated amendment carried a $20,000,000 fiscal note and, by proponents’ estimates, would have brought roughly 9,500 taxpayers into the zero tax bracket by increasing the 0% bracket across filing types. Representative Kepinek said average taxable income among affected filers was about $52,000 and that a previously circulated biennial fiscal estimate for a related version was roughly $40,600,000.

Several lawmakers urged rejection of the Appropriations amendment on policy grounds. Representative Steiner said, “I would hope we could reject this amendment,” arguing that states with no income tax have seen population and business growth. Representative Greenite pressed that reducing income tax returns money directly to residents and noted some constituents view the legislature as having a “spending problem” rather than a revenue shortfall. Opponents of the amendment stressed the relatively concentrated scope — the amendment’s sponsors estimated 9,500 filers would move to 0% — and questioned using that amount from the chamber’s budget priorities.

The body also approved a procedural motion to excuse Representative Heinert from voting on the measure before the final roll call. Later in the day the House took the final vote on the bill in its 14th-order consideration; the clerk’s record shows 83 yea and 11 nay and the chamber declared Senate Bill 2093 passed.

Why it matters: The measure continues a targeted income-tax reduction that lawmakers said is modest in total cost but symbolically significant to the state’s longer-term policy goal of reducing or eliminating individual income tax burdens. Fiscal details such as the $20 million amendment and its estimated effect on the zero bracket framed the debate and are likely to shape discussions when the Senate considers the measure.

What’s next: The bill returns to the Senate (or to enrollment procedures as required by legislative rules) for final processing. Any further changes or conference actions would be recorded in subsequent journal entries.