JLARC recommends continuing or refining most tax preferences; finds emissions, reporting and measurement gaps

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee told the House Finance Committee on Jan. 13 that most tax preferences in its 2025 review should be continued, but several need changes to reporting or performance metrics to make future evaluations useful.

JLARC staff member Aileen Mezzona opened the presentation, saying, "Today, we will present to you, the 20 25 tax preference performance reviews," and noted the project covered nine reviews with the legislative auditor recommending action on eight. The reviews ranged from natural gas used as a transportation fuel to exemptions for nonprofit housing and travel-industry B&O rates.

JLARC concluded three natural-gas preferences reduce the cost of using compressed or liquefied natural gas but do not meet the legislature’s emissions-reduction objective because fewer ships and vehicles converted to natural gas than anticipated. Mezzona said JLARC recommends continuing the public utility tax and natural-gas use tax exemptions "to ensure uniform taxation of natural gas as a transportation fuel" and to modify the public-utility…