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Committee votes 4-3 to advance bill raising county real estate excise tax filing fee to $20 after rejecting amendment
Summary
A legislative committee reported out House Bill 1044 with a due-pass recommendation, approving a change that would replace the current $5 county filing fee on real estate excise tax affidavits with a $20 fee that adjusts every four years for inflation. An amendment to shift who retains the fee was defeated (RIC 359).
A legislative committee voted 4-3 to report out House Bill 1044 with a due-pass recommendation after rejecting Amendment RIC 359.
The bill would replace the existing $5 fee charged to file a real estate excise tax affidavit with a new $20 fee. Under the bill summary presented to the committee, the new fee would be increased every four years based on inflation, and revenue from the fee would be used to fund the statutory duties of the county treasurer and the county assessor.
Committee staff summarized the proposal before the vote, saying the bill “replaces a current $5 fee on the filing of real estate excise tax affidavit with the county treasurer with a new $20 fee, with the fee to be increased every 4 years based on inflation and revenue from the fee to be used to fund the statutory duties of County Treasurer and the County Assessor.”
Representative Griffey urged adoption of Amendment RIC 359, which he described as “an attempt to transfer the burden back to the state,” arguing multiple small fees add up and calling those cumulative costs “the death of 1,000 cuts.” The amendment would have made the new $20 fee retained by the county treasurer on filing and deducted from the amount the county would otherwise remit to the state treasurer.
A committee member opposing the amendment said the proposal would “take away from the state's portion” and could “potentially reduce the ability of this fee to go up with inflation,” which, the member said, would harm counties’ ability to fund assessor services.
The amendment RIC 359 failed on a voice vote, and the committee then proceeded to report HB 1044 out of committee with a due-pass recommendation. After an initial voice vote, staff recorded the roll call as 4 ayes and 3 nays.
By the committee’s recorded count, House Bill 1044 was reported out of committee with a due-pass recommendation (4 ayes, 3 nays). The committee recorded that party-line divisions were reflected in the vote (the committee reported that all Democrats voted yes and all Republicans voted no). The transcript does not list individual roll-call names for each vote in the record provided to the committee.
Votes and formal actions on the bill were limited to committee reporting; the bill summary and amendment text referenced in committee were presented but full statutory citations were not provided in the committee record.
The committee discussion centered on two competing concerns: restoring funding for county assessors and treasurers that members said has lagged under the $5 fee, and whether the state should absorb or offset local fee increases. No final fiscal note or enacted statute text was presented during the committee meeting.
