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Tax Expenditure Review Commission adopts standardized evaluation form
Summary
The commission voted to adopt a standardized evaluation form and procedures to guide reviews of tax expenditures; the Legislative Budget Office will prefill technical fields and aggregate anonymized member responses for public reporting.
The Tax Expenditure Review Commission voted Dec. 10, 2025, to adopt a standardized evaluation form and corresponding procedures to guide how members review individual tax expenditures.
The motion to adopt the draft 2025 evaluation process — moved by Representative Robbins and subject to technical and conforming changes by the co-chairs and vice chair — passed by roll call, seven 'yes' and two excused. "I move to adopt the draft 2025 tax expenditure review commission evaluation process form and corresponding procedures as presented to the commission," Representative Robbins said when offering the motion.
The form, described by the commission chair and Legislative Budget Office staff, is intended to ensure consistent assessment across items. The LBO will prefill top-line fields (expenditure name, adoption year, estimated annual revenue loss, sunset date and tax type, and whether the expenditure results from federal conformity) so members "are on the same page," the chair said. Commission members will complete judgments about whether an expenditure meets its approved objective and rate each item on measurement and effectiveness criteria.
Members will submit individual, private fillable forms to LBO staff. LBO will aggregate those responses into a public summary showing counts and score distributions (for example, how many members "strongly agree" with a statement) without attaching names. The chair said aggregated results and discussion will be used at a subsequent public meeting when members deliberate and vote to continue, modify, or repeal expenditures.
Commissioner Markwart praised the template as providing a consistent foundation for deliberations and said it will increase credibility and integrity in recommendations forwarded to the Legislature. Representative Greg Davids also endorsed the approach while noting the form can be revised in future meetings if it does not meet members' needs.
The commission directed LBO to distribute the fillable forms to members by the end of the day or the following day; members were told the forms will be due back roughly one week after receipt. The co-chairs scheduled follow-up meetings to review aggregated results and consider votes: Jan. 15, 2026 (compiled results and the data-center equipment evaluation) and Jan. 28, 2026 (draft annual report and any remaining votes); the commission's annual report is due Feb. 15, 2026.
