Details from District 2: The last days of the 2023 Legislative Session
Eight weeks down, one to go.
By the time this is published, we will be in our final week of the 2023 legislative session and wrapping up the final bills on the docket. My impression is that this year has been far less contentious than some previous sessions in the recent past and I take that as a good thing. We will have to see if that holds for this last week, but no reason to believe it won’t.
What I want to mainly focus on for this article is the tax cut, or cuts. As of this writing, there are two on the table; one from the House and one from the Senate. A third one was the bill to reduce the sales tax on groceries to zero. I say ‘was’ because this bill was essentially killed in committee by sending it to the 41st day. As you may know, this was also the bill that has been heavily supported by the Governor and a number of legislators.
This may get confusing, so hold on tight. First, the path the House voted to follow is the reduction of the general tax rate, which currently sits at 4.5 percent. HB 1037 has this rate reduced to 4.2 percent and would reduce the revenues from that tax by around $104 million, give or take a few million. This bill passed in the House by a vote of 66-3 and was sent to the Senate. The Senate Taxation committee then amended the bill and added a clause that the tax reduction would ‘sunset’ after two years so that in July of 2025, the rate would then go back to 4.5 percent.
Not agreeing with that change in the bill, the House then had Senate Bill 112 ‘hoghoused’, took the wording from the original HB 1037 and put that into SB 112. This was then voted for on the floor of the House, passed with a vote of 63-6, and sent back to the Senate. This is meant to eliminate the sunset clause that was added to HB 1037 by the Senate committee. As I said before, this can cause one’s head to spin trying to connect all the dots. That said, we will have to see how this one plays out this week. Now, on to the next one.
The Senate wants to reduce tax burden through a rebate of sorts on those that pay property taxes. In its present form, HB 1141 would essentially give the property owners of owner-occupied single-family dwellings a property tax credit payment of $425 each year, this beginning in assessment year 2023, for property taxes payable in 2024. The same would then apply each year thereafter. Interesting to note that this does not have any sunset clause attached to the bill
If either of these bills make it out of both chambers and goes to the Governor’s desk, it would then have to withstand the possibility of the branding iron VETO stamp. Much to watch for as this year wraps up.
On another note, and one that’s not nearly as confusing, it’s Brandon Day at the Legislature on Wednesday, March 8. Myself, Representative John Sjaarda and Senator Steve Kolbeck are looking forward to seeing some familiar faces in the halls and visitor galleries of our State Capital. After that, it’s one more day and homeward bound!
