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Senate committee sends House Bill 304 to floor to provide ongoing school‑facility and homeowner property tax relief
Summary
The Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee on Wednesday voted to send House Bill 304 to the Senate floor with a due‑pass recommendation. The bill would direct the state controller to make automatic annual transfers of $50 million to the school facilities fund and $50 million to a homeowner property tax relief fund.
The Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee on Wednesday voted to send House Bill 304 to the Senate floor with a due‑pass recommendation. The bill would direct the state controller to make automatic annual transfers of $50 million to the school facilities fund and $50 million to the homeowner property tax relief fund.
Sponsor Senator Scott Grove, District 14, told the committee the measure is a follow‑up to House Bill 292 and is structured so half of the ongoing appropriation goes to school facilities and half to homeowners. "If you look on page 3, I believe it is line 15. Talks about 50,000,000 additional money that will be ongoing money going into the school facilities fund each year," Grove said. He said the homeowner fund transfer is expected to lower homeowners’ assessed property tax by about 5.4 percent, with the school facilities fund producing roughly a 5.12 percent reduction for all taxpayers; he described the combined reduction for homeowners as "over 10 and a half percent."
Grove told the committee the state controller would make the transfers automatically and that counties and local taxing entities would receive their full levied amounts because the state funds would make up the difference. "Does the county get shorted? No. The county gets the full amount because the state is making up the difference for the counties and all the other taxing local taxing entities by those 2 funds," he said.
When Senator Den Hartog asked whether the bill would take effect for the current fiscal year, Grove said it would. "Yes. I should have made that clear. This will affect your property taxes this year," he said, adding that taxpayers should see the reduction reflected in November.
Committee members framed the measure as a response to constituent concerns about rising property taxes, and they thanked Grove for pursuing continuous — rather than one‑time — funding. The committee chair called the motion to send HB 304 to the floor with a due‑pass recommendation; Senator Anthony moved the motion, a senator recorded as the second, and the motion carried by voice vote.
The bill will now proceed to the Senate floor for further consideration.
