Committee reviews short-form proposal to tax chronically vacant properties

Committee members discussed a short-form bill that would create a tax on chronically vacant residential and commercial properties during a Ways & Means committee meeting on Friday, April 18. Legislative counsel Kirby Keene introduced H.443 and said it “proposes to create a new tax on residential and commercial properties that are left vacant.”

Committee members spent most of the discussion defining the problem the bill is intended to address and weighing how a vacancy measure would operate. Lawmakers described downtown commercial buildings that have sat empty for more than a decade, contrasted those with short-term unoccupied homes targeted by some municipal vacancy levies, and debated whether a statewide law, a municipal option, a fine or a dedicated “splinter” tax would be the appropriate tool.

The short form…