Following months of public input meetings and workgroup discussions, the House Tax Policy committee reported a completely re-crafted version of House Bill 6049, the State Treasurer’s proposed assessing reform legislation.

This new H-1 substitute version shifts away from the original format and the various prescribed thresholds that a community would have been required to meet to handle their own assessing, and moves instead towards a system that builds off of the current Audit of Minimum Assessing Requirements (AMAR) program that the State Tax Commission is currently utilizes to evaluate local assessing processes.  Following significant feedback on the introduced version and discussion around promoting uniform, consistent quality measures, the new bill version accommodates all of the suggested changes from the League that we provided throughout the process and ensures a fair mechanism is put in place to enforce and maintain these standards.

In addition to the positive shift in direction of the original proposal, the League was also able to secure language in the H-1 substitute that provides additional authority for more than 40 villages in the state whose boundaries cross into more than one township.  Villages experiencing this type of situation will be able to work directly with the State Tax Commission to designate one, sole assessor to perform those duties for the village, streamlining the process and avoiding headaches and delays.

The bill is now on the House floor where a vote is expected this week, with Senate action the following week.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.