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House Ways and Means Committee advances five bills, including heirs property relief and a Union County school tax measure
Summary
The House Ways and Means Committee on April 16 gave favorable reports to five bills, including H.4477 (heirs property tax relief), H.4589 (Union County sales-tax referendum authorization), H.5093 (Next Generation 911 sales-tax cleanup), H.5208 (unprepared foods sales-tax exemption) and H.4576 (expanded eligibility for the state optional retirement plan). All items on the agenda received unanimous or unanimous-with-absences committee votes.
The House Ways and Means Committee met April 16 and gave favorable committee reports to five bills touching property tax treatment, local education sales taxes, sales-tax technical clarifications and retirement-plan eligibility.
Representative Collins introduced House Bill 4477 as an heirs-property tax relief measure, saying, “This is, h 44 77 is a bill that would exclude transfers among heirs from being considered an accessible transfer of interest for property tax purposes.” He cited support from the Association of Counties and Habitat for Humanity. The committee adopted a subcommittee amendment by voice and then approved the bill by roll call, 18-0, which the chair announced as a favorable report.
The committee also approved House Bill 4589, which Representative Collins described as a county-specific measure that would allow Union County to implement an education capital improvement sales-and-use tax only after a local school-board resolution and a voter referendum; a subcommittee amendment increased a threshold from $50,000 to $70,000 and was included in the bill. The committee gave H.4589 a favorable report by roll call, 20-0.
In the sales-and-use income tax subcommittee portion of the agenda, Representative Long presented House Bill 5093 as a technical cleanup to address a possible Department of Revenue reinterpretation of sales tax on contracts for services related to Next Generation 911, noting no anticipated physical fiscal impact because such charges had not been collected in the past. The committee approved H.5093 by roll call, 22-0.
Representative Long also sponsored House Bill 5208 to preserve the current definition of unprepared foods for sales-tax purposes after a USDA/SNAP waiver change. He warned that, without a fix in statute, an August change would impose roughly $56,000,000 in new tax on items such as sodas and candy, saying the bill would “essentially keep us where we’re at today” and adding, “Don’t tax my Coca Colas.” The committee approved H.5208 by roll call, 21-0.
Representative Cobb Hunter presented House Bill 4576 in the general government section to expand the definition of employees eligible for participation in the state optional retirement plan and to include certain special-purpose districts already participating in the plan. The chair proposed Amendment 1 to allow employers (including special-purpose districts) to opt into a 401(k)-style participation option and to elect, on a 12-month basis, to pay an employee’s share of the contribution to the pension fund; the amendment and the bill as amended were adopted. The committee gave H.4576 a favorable report by roll call, 19-0.
The meeting concluded after the roll-call votes and the chair adjourned the committee. No votes failed, and the committee did not send any items to the floor with negative recommendations on this agenda.
Votes at a glance: H.4477 — favorable report (18-0); H.4589 — favorable report (20-0); H.5093 — favorable report (22-0); H.5208 — favorable report (21-0); H.4576 — favorable report (19-0).
