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Joint Budget Committee votes to end state reimbursement program for property destroyed by natural causes
Summary
After a detailed briefing on how the destroyed‑property tax reimbursement program works and how counties and taxpayers are affected, the Joint Budget Committee approved draft legislation to end the program effective July 1 and assigned initial sponsors for the bill.
The Joint Budget Committee voted to approve draft legislation to repeal the state’s destroyed‑property tax reimbursement program, a policy that reimburses portions of property taxes when property is destroyed by natural causes.
Louella Lowe, JBC staff, presented background materials and asked the committee whether it wished to advance draft legislation to end the program effective July 1. Megan McCall of the Office of Legislative Legal Services explained the program’s mechanics: when property is destroyed during a tax year, county assessors prorate tax liability. State statute provides a program that backfills the portion of the bill attributable to the value of property that later is destroyed so that taxing jurisdictions remain whole and taxpayers are not left paying taxes on property that was destroyed.
Committee members discussed budget and policy tradeoffs. Lowe and McCall noted that recent large late‑year disasters—cited specifically during the meeting as the Marshall fires—had produced substantial costs for that program, and that because the appropriation covered prior tax years, staff recommended a smaller current‑year reversion rather than a full cut immediately. JBC staff recommended ending the program prospectively and suggested placing the effective date on July 1.
Joanne Groff (participating by Zoom) described county assessment mechanics and confirmed counties could make adjustments to assessments but generally could not implement a county‑level backfill of the state’s payment without statute. Committee members raised questions about whether counties or other taxing jurisdictions could create local funds to help taxpayers—McCall and Groff said that local jurisdictions could establish assistance programs but that the state program was historically designed to make taxing jurisdictions whole.
On a motion to approve the draft eliminating the destroyed‑property reimbursement program (content and effective date), the committee passed the measure by unanimous consent, 6–0. Senators and representatives volunteered to sponsor and cosponsor the measure; Senator Sarah Kirkmeyer agreed to be the lead Senate sponsor and Representative Tackard agreed to carry the bill in the House; additional House cosponsors named included Representative Burt and Representatives Sirota and Amabile.
Ending: The committee’s vote authorizes staff to prepare the finalized draft for introduction. Because the motion included both content approval and an effective date, staff will proceed with the bill as written and begin the process in the Senate with the sponsors named.
