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Conferees consider Oct. 1 budget-certification deadline, protest-petition rules and a $60M "Astra" fund
Summary
Conferees reviewed proposals to move local budget-certification deadlines to Oct. 1, require county clerks to use prior-year levies if budgets are not timely certified, create a $60 million Astra fund and establish a taxpayer protest-petition process tied to new notification requirements.
Conferees reviewed property-tax and taxpayer-notification provisions that appear in the Senate substitute for House Bill 2,125 and in Senate Bill 35, including changes to certification deadlines, protest-petition rules and a new state transfer to an "Astra" fund.
Amelia, a committee staff member, summarized the Senate substitute for House Bill 2,125 as proposing two principal changes to local tax administration: moving the universal deadline for taxing subdivisions to certify budgets and the amount of property tax to be levied from August 25 to October 1, and changing the deadline for county treasurers to mail tax statements from December 15 to December 1. Amelia also explained that the bill ties a sanction to the October 1 budget deadline: if a taxing jurisdiction fails to certify its budget and levy by 5 p.m. on October 1, the county clerk would use the prior year's budget and ad valorem tax amount for that taxing jurisdiction when preparing tax rolls.
On the Senate Bill 35 content discussed by conferees, staff described the bill as containing several linked provisions: a protest-petition mechanism triggered when budgets exceed a stated threshold, new taxpayer notifications explaining the protest process and showing the taxes levied by jurisdictions for the current and previous year (including dollar and percentage differences), creation of a notification cost fund to reimburse counties for postage and printing in 2025 and 2026 (funded by a transfer from the State General Fund), repeal of the revenue-neutral-rate provisions as drafted in one version, and reauthorization of a statewide 20-mill school finance levy for two years.
SB 35 would also create an Astra fund ("acknowledging stewardship of tax revenue and appropriations") with a $60,000,000 transfer from the State General Fund by demand transfer on or before July 15; that amount would be set to increase by 2% per year in future years. The distribution formula would apportion that transfer across counties with 65% based on population and 35% based on assessed valuation; county and city governments within each county would receive shares in proportion to their assessed valuation. The staff explanation said any county or city whose budget is subject to a protest petition would not receive its share; funds attributable to jurisdictions subject to a petition would revert to the state general fund.
Conferees debated how to set the trigger for a protest petition. One conferee described the House discussion in which the committee considered a trigger equal to CPI (Midwest) or 3%, whichever is lower, plus new construction and bonding; another conferee urged simplifying the trigger to a flat 4% (or CPI, whichever was lower) and to exclude new construction. Senator Corson warned excluding new construction could "hurt districts like mine that are growing rapidly," while Senator Coors expressed principled objections to a petition process that would allow a minority of taxpayers to overturn actions by elected officials unless an election were required. Senator Coors said: "I also have a lot of heartburn about that...it puts us in position where it's sort of minority rule."
Logistical concerns animated much of the debate. Members said the current election calendar and a 45-day blackout around primaries and generals make conducting a special election difficult. Conferees discussed alternatives: keeping a protest-petition mechanism for this year while studying an election option in the interim, or crafting calendar exceptions or state payment for any special election costs so small taxing jurisdictions would not bear the full expense.
Staff and conferees also discussed work to combine the revenue-neutral notices and protest-petition notices to avoid multiple mailings. Amelia said the bill would add a column to revenue-neutral notices showing prior-year mill levies, the revenue-neutral rate and the proposed rate, so taxpayers would see three rate figures in the notice.
No formal action was taken; conferees asked staff to research calendar and costing questions and to return with draft language that could be finalized for floor action.
