On January 18, 2024, MACo Legislative Director Kevin Kinnally testified before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee in support of SB 6 Property Tax- Credit for Dwelling House of Disabled Veterans- Alterations with Amendments. This bill alters eligibility for property tax credit on the dwelling house of disabled veterans to include individuals who have been declared by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to have a nonpermanent service-connected disability of 100%.
The bill as introduced would substantially expand a local-option tax credit that has been adopted my numerous local jurisdictions – creating an awkward potential effect that outstrips that which the jurisdiction considered when debating its affordability and suitability for their local needs. MACo offered amendments on the bill to grant local flexibility in whether to extend their own locally-adopted program in the direction envisioned by the bill – thereby retaining the concept of local autonomy that was originally envisioned by its creation.
Local-option property tax credits allow counties to enact credits tailored to their specific community needs. Additionally, they give each jurisdiction broad discretion to determine how much revenue it is willing to forego to provide the desirable benefits an optional credit enables.
SB 6’s cross-file, HB 63, was heard on February 1, 2024 in the House Ways and Means Committee. Kevin Kinnally testified in support of this bill with amendments.
HB 63 was heard in the opposite chamber, the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, on March 26. MACo submitted written testimony in support of this bill with amendments. SB 6 was also heard in the opposite chamber, the House Ways and Means Committee, on March 26.
