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House
Restores Funding for Property Tax Credits
On Monday, January 27, the House approved HF 32 (formerly
House File 1), which restores $3.5 million in cuts to the Homestead,
Ag Land and Elderly and Disabled property tax credits.
During
the 2002 regular session, the property tax credits were reduced in
order to balance the budget. In
May, the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC), reduced revenue
projections by $200 million for FY 03.
In order to balance the budget, several items, including the
property tax credits, were cut by 2.2 percent.
HF 32 restores the $2.3 million cut to the Homestead credit,
restores the $800,000 cut to the Ag Land credit and restores the
$400,000 cut to the Elderly and Disabled credit.
Each of the cuts was made in the May special session last
year.
The
bill originally stipulated that that the counties, which passed
along the cut to taxpayers, give the taxpayers an additional credit
in FY 04. The counties,
which used cash reserves or other funds to give the credit, could
keep the money. However,
since there was confusion about which counties gave the credit and
which did not, an amendment was adopted to send the money back to
the counties and allow the county officials to decide whether or not
to pass along the credit to the taxpayers.
The
bill was approved on a 97-0 vote and now goes to the Senate.
Ways
& Means Update
Bills passed out of Ways & Means this week:
HF
2- A
bill for an act relating to the percentage of property valuation in
each county and city.
Bill
Assignments:
HF
28- An
Act phasing out the tax on social security benefits under the state
individual income tax and including a retroactive applicability date
provision.
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Week
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