Senate weighs compromise on judgment levies, creates abbreviated notice and hearing for small levies

Senators on March 1 debated the sixth substitute to House Bill 268, a measure to change how local governments handle judgment levies — the tax levies local governments impose to pay court-ordered refunds. The substitute, the sponsor said, aims to strike a middle ground between requiring full truth-in-taxation hearings for every judgment levy and allowing levies to be imposed without any public notice.

The sponsor summarized the substitute’s mechanics and rationale: "What is a judgment levy? A judgment levy is where an entity such as a city or county gets a judgment against it by virtue of a proper tax refund claim," the sponsor explained on the Senate floor, describing how central-assessed taxpayers can produce refunds that ripple across many counties. The sixth substitute would require a smaller-format public notice (an "eighth-page" notice in print) and allow two specific periods when a jurisdiction may hold a public hearing…