Bill to align statute with practice for FWP lands moves through taxation hearing with amendment

The House Taxation Committee heard House Bill 87, a Department of Revenue-sponsored measure revising property-tax procedures and county reimbursements for lands owned by the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP).

Representative Sherry Esman, sponsor, said the bill implements Recommendation No. 4 from a legislative performance audit that called for statute and practice to be aligned on how FWP lands are treated for tax-assessment purposes.

Bryce Kotz, bureau chief with the Property Assessment Division, explained that the department historically has left those lands on local tax rolls and that the bill would update statute to match that practice. “All we’re trying to do is align statute with how we’ve historically treated these properties as leaving them on the tax rolls as taxable like any other privately owned property,” Kotz said.

Bill Schenk of the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks and David Singer of the Legislative Audit Division appeared as informational witnesses. Schenk said the department supports a proffered amendment that excludes property purchased before May 10, 2009, ensuring the change is neutral to the department’s fiscal burden; the 2009 legislative change in the law was the drafting rationale for the temporal cut-off.

Committee members asked for clarification about the amendment and its intended fiscal neutrality; Schenk said the amendment corrects an unintended drafting result that would otherwise exempt longstanding wildlife management areas and similar holdings acquired before 2009. Representative Espin and the department urged a due pass with the amendment.

The hearing closed on HB 87; no executive action was taken that day.