Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Taxation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Montana bill would keep voter-approved school and bond levies out of TIF calculations
Summary
House Bill 451 would exclude new voted school levies and general-obligation bond levies from tax increment financing calculations so revenues from those levies go to the ballot-stated purpose rather than the TIF increment, proponents told the House Tax Committee.
Representative Mark Thane, R-House District 89, introduced House Bill 451 and told the House Tax Committee the bill would exclude certain newly voted mill levies from the calculation of tax increment financing (TIF) in urban renewal and targeted economic development districts. "House Bill 451 excludes certain new voted levies from the tax increment calculation," Thane said, adding that the change is intended to direct voter-approved mills to the specific purposes stated on ballots.
Thane opened with a brief primer on TIFs, explaining that when an urban renewal district is formed the district's taxable value at that time becomes the base; increases in taxable value thereafter generate an "increment" used to finance infrastructure and redevelopment projects. He illustrated why the bill matters with an example: if voters approve a mill levy to service a bond for a new fire station, the proceeds should go to debt service on that bond rather than be included in a TIF increment.
Proponents who testified included Rob Watson, executive director of the School Administrators of Montana speaking for a coalition of public-school advocates; Jennifer Olson, government affairs director for the Montana League of Cities and Towns; and representatives of municipal governments and business groups. Watson told the committee that while TIFs are useful, they can reduce how much revenue local schools collect from properties inside a TIF district and said HB 451 "protects critical funding for Montana schools." Olson said the bill corrects a prior oversight so that new general-obligation bond debt service and permissive school levies are used for their intended purposes rather than included in the TIF calculation.
Informational witnesses available for questions included Bryce Otz, Bureau Chief with the Property Assessment Division, and Dylan Cole from tax policy and research at the Department of Revenue. During questions, a committee member asked Thane to explain the bill in four sentences; Thane summarized that money generated by voter-approved mills for bond debt service or school reserve requests would be excluded from the TIF increment calculation and would instead support the ballot-stated purpose.
Thane closed by reiterating that the bill is intended to preserve the utility of TIFs while ensuring voter-approved levies go to their intended uses, and he asked the committee for a "due pass" recommendation. The committee closed the hearing on HB 451 with proponents broadly supporting the clarification and no opponents recorded.
Next steps: the sponsor requested a due-pass recommendation; the committee record shows the hearing closed without a final committee vote recorded in the transcript.
