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Committee orders study on municipal income tax reciprocity and reports House Bill 503
Summary
The committee accepted an amendment requiring the Department of Taxation to study municipal income tax uniformity and favorably reported House Bill 503 after tabling an amendment that would have allowed combined ballot questions tying reciprocity credits to rate changes.
Chairman Romer brought House Bill 503 to the committee for its sixth hearing; his office received no in-person testimony. Ranking Member Troy offered an amendment (1361720) that requires the Department of Taxation to study municipal income tax uniformity with stakeholder consultation and deliver a report no later than Dec. 31. Troy characterized municipal income tax law as unusually complex and urged a comprehensive review to identify whether earlier practices like tax sharing should be revisited.
Chairman Romer said the amendment seeks input from the business community, municipalities and individuals and, seeing no objection, accepted it. Representative Glassburn then proposed amendment 17-14-01 to allow municipalities to submit a combined ballot question pairing reciprocity credit and a tax-rate change so localities would not face a multi-step voting problem that could leave them without needed revenue. Chairman Romer opposed that change, saying it would effectively undercut the bill’s purpose and cited an example in Franklin County where an increase was tied to reciprocity.
The committee voted to lay Representative Glassburn’s amendment on the table (announced 9–4). Vice Chair Thomas moved to favorably report House Bill 503; after the roll call the chair announced the bill was favorably reported by a vote of 11 to 2. The committee directed LSC to harmonize and engross accepted amendments.
