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Committee advances bill that alters treatment of emergency and substitute school levies; amendment preserving rollbacks tabled
Summary
The House Ways and Means Committee moved House Bill 129 out of committee after adopting an amendment that creates a "fixed-sum" glide path for existing emergency levies and prevents certain levies from counting toward the 20-mill floor until a district's next revaluation. An amendment to grandfather state rollback credits was laid on the table 9–4.
The House Ways and Means Committee favorably reported House Bill 129 after adopting an amendment intended to provide a transition for school districts that currently rely on emergency or substitute levies.
The bill seeks to standardize how different types of voted school levies are treated in the state’s school-funding and property-tax calculations and to address the so-called 20-mill floor — the statutory threshold that affects state rollback calculations. Committee members said the measure would increase transparency in levy language and prevent future large spikes in tax bills tied to certain levies.
Vice Chair Representative David Thomas explained an adopted amendment that creates a mechanism for districts with existing emergency levies to convert, once, to a “fixed-sum” levy when their current emergency levy next comes up for renewal or expiration. That fixed-sum levy would be eligible for state rollback credits (the nonbusiness 10% credit and the owner-occupant 2.5% credit) for the renewal, sponsors said, and the fixed-sum levies would be brought into the 20-mill calculation at the time of the district’s next property revaluation rather than immediately.
“We’re allowing current schools who have an emergency levy on the books … to be transparent with that money,” Thomas said, explaining the amendment’s glide path intent. He noted substitute levies are inherently not fixed-sum and so the amendment does not convert substitute levies to fixed-sum renewals.
Opponents of a separate amendment sought to preserve rollback credits for existing levies beyond the temporary glide path. Representative Glassburn offered an amendment to grandfather rollbacks, saying the legislature’s earlier override of a veto produced approximately $96 million in rollback eliminations and that the committee should preserve existing rollback treatment for the affected levies. Vice Chair Thomas moved to lay that amendment on the table; the motion carried 9–4.
Auditor Matt Nolan testified in favor of HB129 and described the bill as a clarification that would make levy types and tax consequences easier for the public to understand. “It uses language the way [voters] would use it,” Nolan said, and he described the bill as addressing confusion about emergency, substitute and replacement levies.
After debate and amendment, the committee voted to favorably report House Bill 129 and recommend its passage. The roll-call recorded a unanimous vote in favor when the committee reported the bill to the full House.
Committee members instructed Legislative Service Commission staff to harmonize and engross accepted amendments and the substitute bill for floor consideration.
