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House Education committee tables bill to use SEPTA funds for overbase increases
Summary
After extended questioning about whether tapping the School Equalization and Property Tax Relief Account (SEPTA) would affect property taxes, the House Education committee voted to table House Bill 265 (sponsor: Rep. Miscavige). Members had debated an amendment directing SEPTA as the first source for overbase inflationary increases.
The House Education committee on Feb. 14 tabled House Bill 265 after extended discussion about how directing the School Equalization and Property Tax Relief Account (SEPTA) to fund inflationary increases would interact with property-tax levies.
Laura, the committee staff reviewer, said HB 265 would authorize school boards to increase a previously voter-approved overbase levy by the same inflationary adjustment the legislature provides for other entitlements and would designate the SEPTA account as the first source of funding. An amendment pulled existing language from section 20-9-336 into the bill to clarify how funds would “flow… into buckets” for different purposes, Laura said.
Representative Bertolio asked whether the amendment would increase property taxes. Lance Melton of the School Boards Association responded that “the 95 mils is over performing to the degree that it’s flowing right past all the triggers,” adding that, “by measure by current law, it’ll flow by and and completely resolve any increase in taxes based upon the inflation formula that you’ve adopted.” Melton gave illustrative figures in the discussion, noting roughly $145,000,000 of taxes and about $278,000,000 of GTB when describing the base calculations.
Committee members said the bill’s intent — to capture automatic inflationary pressures and ease repeated requests to voters — was sound. Representative Bell Veil said the bill “does try to capture some of that automatic, inflationary pressures that the school funding is under,” and Representative Eisley said, “in the near future, this would help save property taxes,” while stressing the outcome depends on continued SEPTA performance and tax-code stability.
The committee then took a roll-call vote on HB 265 as once amended; the spoken record includes a corrected tally and is not wholly clear on passage. Following that tally, Vice Chair Greg moved to table the bill. The roll call on the motion to table was recorded by the clerk as 15 ayes, and the motion to table was adopted; HB 265 will not proceed from this executive-action session.
Next steps: With the bill tabled in executive action, proponents may seek to revive it at a later date or during subsequent floor action, but no further action on HB 265 was taken at this meeting.
