Housing task force finalizes draft recommendations on school funding and property-tax changes; schedules presentation to governor Aug. 15

Members of the housing task force reviewed and refined a draft report of recommendations on Tuesday that would change how K–12 schooling is funded and shift some property-tax burdens across the state. Chairman Osmundson opened the meeting and asked members to focus on the content of the recommendations; the task force agreed to present the finished report to the governor on Aug. 15 at 10:00 a.m. in the Capitol reception room, with a Zoom option.

Representative Beatty, reporting for the education subcommittee, said the group offered three primary recommendations: transitioning to a countywide base levy to narrow wide mill-levy discrepancies across districts; “fix[ing] the 95 mil levy” and realizing the benefits of House Bill 587 (the school equalization and property tax reduction act); and applying voter-turnout requirements used in some bond elections to levy elections more broadly. “I think this does reflect where we wanted to go,” Representative Beatty said, urging that a small set of slides be added to explain each recommendation.

Representative Jones, speaking for the tax-fairness subcommittee, described the likely scale of impacts in his presentation. Jones said the proposal would touch roughly 215,000 homeowner dwellings, about 130,000 long‑term renters and some 32,000 small businesses. He also proposed an agricultural safeguard — referred to in the discussion as an “agstead” exemption — to shield closely associated class 3 and class 4 agricultural properties (farmhouses and associated parcels) from unintended tax impacts. Jones said preliminary modeling that held those closely associated agricultural parcels at a 1.35 residential factor appeared to avoid negative outcomes, but he cautioned the “devil will be in the details” as legislators draft precise bill language.

Not all members were without concern. Member Lance urged the task force add a brief warning to the report about potential constitutional implications of a proposed 10‑year levy sunset, saying past debate showed the possibility that districts could be pushed down to the base budget and that the legislature might have to address the funding formula. Chairman Osmundson agreed to include language reflecting that concern and asked Lance to supply suggested wording to staff.

A public commenter, Dr. Jeremy Porfandel, recommended the report explicitly show the magnitude of increases for non‑owner-occupied residential properties; he said, “in our model it is about 38%,” referring to non-homestead residential properties that do not qualify for the homestead exemption. A staff member responding for the Department of Revenue said the agency will refine numbers and that providing a single precise number now would be premature; members suggested including a wide range in the dissenting narrative (examples discussed included mid‑20s to mid‑30s percentage ranges) to reflect modeling uncertainty.

The task force agreed to correct typographical and formatting errors in the draft and to add a chair’s addendum reflecting the agricultural-protection language discussed. Scott Mendenhall asked that the appendix preserve other subcommittee work that did not make the recommendations list; members agreed to review the appendix to ensure that broader work is captured.

The chair thanked Legislative Fiscal Division and Department of Revenue staff for their assistance, confirmed the Aug. 15 presentation to the governor at 10:00 a.m. (Capitol reception room, with Zoom), and adjourned the meeting.

Next steps: staff will incorporate agreed wording changes and the requested addendum, refine or expand explanatory slides or figures, and circulate an updated draft in advance of the Aug. 15 presentation.