Legislative Fiscal Division demonstrates budget, property and resource revenue data tools to tax committee

Good morning. Legislative Fiscal Division analysts showed the Senate Tax Committee interactive online tools on Wednesday that they said lawmakers can use to model budgets, property-tax liabilities, and resource-based revenues as they consider bills this session.

The tools, presented by Nick Van Brown of the Legislative Fiscal Division and Joe Bond of LFD, include a budget dashboard that tracks the governor’s request and later session versions, a property-tax “taxes paid” tool that sums tax liabilities by parcel and taxing unit, an HJ 2 revenue-estimate dashboard, an oil-and-gas collections and distribution tool, and an accommodations-tax dashboard. “We have been going around to several of the committees … to present data tools that are applicable to you all,” Van Brown told the committee.

The budget tool shows the governor’s preliminary request and can be adjusted to compare subcommittee, floor, and final versions. Van Brown pointed to a “version compare” feature that, he said, lets members select two budget versions and see line-by-line differences in program and decision-package amounts.

The property-tax tool aggregates assessed values, mill rates and computed tax liability for every parcel in the state and can display results by county, municipality or taxing unit. Van Brown said the tool can separate taxes from newly taxable property (for example, newly developed subdivisions) from taxes accruing on existing property, and can break results out by property class (residential, agricultural, pipelines, electric and so on). He demonstrated an interactive scenario that lets users lower the residential rate and see how mills would float to other classes in a specific county. “If you change the residential rate down to 1.2, residential lowers, but all of these will increase,” Van Brown said, describing the tool’s mechanics.

Committee members asked about special and non‑conventional districts. Van Brown and staff described two broad categories: fee-based districts (for example lighting districts) and levy-authority districts (for example cemetery districts or certain road or water/sewer districts). The property tool displays many of those county-level fees and mill components, though Van Brown acknowledged some categories are grouped as “other” with limited line-item detail.

Bond demonstrated the HJ 2 dashboard, which displays the revenue estimates adopted by the Revenue Interim Committee (HJ 2) and allows users to examine the composition of general fund revenue by source and by fiscal year. “These are the revenue estimates as adopted by HJ2,” Bond said. Bond also showed an oil-and-gas tool that contains historical collections, county-level distributions, rig counts and production series and a 10‑ to 20‑year projection that uses S&P Global price paths as an input. He demonstrated a separate accommodations-tax dashboard that shows collections, distributions, and the effect of changing statutory allocations.

Van Brown and Bond stressed the tools are designed for use during session: they update with new decision packages and budget versions, and users can compare subcommittee and floor changes as they occur. Van Brown urged senators to use the tools to test property-tax scenarios and to illustrate how changes in class rates or newly taxable treatment shift tax burdens across property classes and local taxing units.

The committee did not take action on any bills at the conclusion of the briefing. Staff told members the tools and supporting spreadsheets are available to committees and that LFD staff are available for follow-up questions.