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Committee approves amendment to require tax-impact estimates on municipal websites
Summary
Sen. Victoria Sullivan sponsored a bill to require municipalities to publish tax and proposed-project impact information online; the committee amended the bill to express impact as per $1,000 of equalized valuation and approved the amendment and motion of OTP, then placed the bill on consent (later removed by a senator).
Senate Bill 217, introduced by Sen. Victoria Sullivan, would require cities and towns to post tax information and project tax-impact estimates on municipal websites and social media to improve transparency for taxpayers.
"This bill simply, the first part of it, takes what is information that's readily available in the Department of Treasury website ... and it breaks it down so they will be visible on every town's or city's website and on their social media pages," Sullivan told the committee. She said the bill would provide graphs showing spending flows and an "average tax impact" for proposed large building projects so residents can see what a project would mean for their taxes.
Sullivan cited school-building proposals as the impetus: she described phased proposals that she said could total about $2,000,000,000 when fully built out and said constituents want clearer information on the local tax implications for each phase.
Committee members questioned how to express per-resident impact; Senator Lang offered a committee amendment to replace the word "resident" with "per thousand dollars of equalized valuation." The amendment was moved and seconded and carried in committee. The committee then recorded a motion of OTP (mover Senator Lang; second Senator Rocheford). After committee action the bill was placed on the consent calendar; the transcript records Senator Lang later removing the bill from consent for follow-up action.
Public sign-up totals were read as 35 in support and 2 in opposition.
Committee members discussed administrative burden; the chair noted that under chapter 14 of the state statutes small administrative costs may not trigger a fiscal note and that producing and posting the data would generally be a one-time heavier burden the first year and minimal thereafter.
