SPONSOR: Fowler
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass" by the Special Committee on Property Tax Reform by a vote of 11 to 8. Voted "To Return to the Committee of Origin" by Rules-Legislative by a vote of 12 to 0. Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Special Committee on Property Tax Reform by a vote of 12 to 1. Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Rules-Legislative by a vote of 10 to 2.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HB 2925.
This bill standardizes ballot language for questions submitted to voters by a political subdivision desiring to levy a real property or personal property tax.
Currently, ballot language often describes a desired tax as a specified amount on each $100 of assessed valuation.
The bill requires ballot language to describe the desired tax as a specified amount per $100,000 of appraised value, depending on whether the property is residential, commercial, agricultural, and per $10,000 of appraised value for a motor vehicle.
A political subdivision or election authority must not advertise or describe any proposed tax on property in a political subdivision as decreasing taxes unless both failing to adopt the proposed measure would cause an actual increase and adopting the proposed measure would cause the tax rate to stay the same or decrease.
The ballot language statements must fairly and accurately explain what a vote for and what a vote against the measure represent, as specified in the bill.
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that the bill standardizes how property tax information is portrayed to voters on ballots by requiring property tax levy questions to be worded in a certain way. Those in support of the bill state that the bill will provide for consistency in property tax ballots. Testifying in person for the bill was Representative Fowler.
OPPONENTS: Those who oppose the bill say that moving so many questions and local ballots to November will stress election authorities. Opponents state that the longer ballots will cause more voter fatigue.
Testifying in person against the bill was Missouri Association of Counties.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony and witnesses testifying online can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: