The General Assembly introduced a number of bills on organizational day today.
Links and summaries below the fold.
In the Senate:
* SB 1 — Limits on school and child welfare levies. Limits on school and child welfare levies. Terminates, beginning January 1, 2010: (1) the medical assistance to wards property tax levy; (2) the family and children’s property tax levy; (3) the children’s psychiatric residential treatment services property tax levy; (4) the children with special health care needs property tax levy; (5) the maximum permissible tuition support levy; and (6) the county supplemental school financing property tax levy.
* SB 12 — Credit for excessive property taxes. Allows a credit for excessive property taxes beginning in 2010 with respect to: (1) homesteads in the amount by which taxes exceed 1% of assessed value; (2) all other residential property in the amount by which taxes exceed 2% of assessed value; and (3) nonresidential real property and personal property in the amount by which taxes exceed 3% of assessed value.
* SB 13 — Standardized public school building plans. Senator Hershman. This one requires the State to create standard plans for school facilities. If a school wants to deviate from the McSchool plan, the board has to make a finding that the McSchool plan doesn’t meet the school’s plans and specify why. Finally, in what strikes me as a bizarre provision, the law would require the architect or person providing professional services with respect to construction to become joint owner of the facility but let the school use the facility for free. Very odd — can the person then sell the person’s interest? Does it pass to his or her heirs?
* SB 14 — Elimination of state property tax levies. Eliminates the statewide ad valorem property taxes imposed for the state forestry fund, the state fair, and the department of local government finance data base management.
* SB 15 — Property tax credit and deduction filing deadlines. Extends the filing deadline for the homestead credit and various property tax deductions from June 11 to October 1. (Also known as the “legalize what Governor Daniels did illegally bill.”)
* SB 16 — Property tax assessing duties – Transfers to the county assessor on January 1, 2009, the property tax assessment duties of elected township assessors and township trustees. Eliminates the office of elected township assessor. Provides that an individual who was: (1) elected to; or (2) selected to fill a vacancy in; the office of township assessor before November 4, 2008, is entitled to remain in office and serve as township assessor until the end of the individual’s current term. Provides that each appraiser that performs assessments on behalf of a county property assessment contractor must have a level two assessor-appraiser certification, and requires the department of local government finance to consider before approving the contract the contractor’s experience, training, and number of employees. Repeals obsolete provisions.
* SB 17 — Redevelopment commissions and TIF. Too long to paste and I don’t feel like parsing it.
* SB 0018 — Limitations on debt. Too long to parse and I don’t feel like parsing it.
* SB 19 — Income tax withholding. Requires wage withholding payments and estimated tax payments for nonresident aliens to be computed based on the application of not more than one personal exclusion. Requires employers to report to the department of state revenue the amount of withholdings attributable to local income taxes each time the employer remits to the department the tax that is withheld. Requires an individual filing an estimated tax return to designate the portion of the estimated tax payment that represents state income tax liability and the portion of the estimated tax payment that represents local income tax liability. Provides that if an individual requests the payor of a distribution to withhold taxes from the distribution, the individual must designate the portion of the withheld amount that represents state income tax liability and the portion of the withheld amount that represents local income tax liability. Requires the department of state revenue and the office of management and budget to develop certain reports related to local option income taxes.
* SB 20 — Eliminate certain levy limit exclusions. For property taxes first due and payable after 2009, eliminates the exclusion from a county’s maximum levy of the county’s levies for the family and children’s fund and the children’s psychiatric residential treatment services fund.
* SB 21 — Additional 2007 homestead credit. Basically converts the tax refund into a tax credit for counties that are sending bills or revised bills after December 31, 2007.
In the House:
* HB 1001 — Property tax relief. Replaces elected county assessors with county assessors appointed by the county fiscal body. Eliminates township assessors. Increases the circuit breaker credit for homesteads and certain rental property. Provides an additional 35% supplemental standard deduction for homesteads. Provides an additional homestead credit for 2008. Eliminates state reimbursed homestead credits and property tax replacement credits in 2009. Eliminates: (1) school tuition support levies; (2) school transportation fund levies; (3) county medical assistance to wards fund levies; (4) family and children’s fund levies; (5) children’s psychiatric residential treatment services fund levies; (6) children with special health care needs county fund levies; (7) the state forestry fund levy; (8) the state fair fund levy; and (9) the department of local government finance data base management levy. Changes the formula for determining the maximum permissible growth in certain levies and eliminates the authority of a county to restrict review of levies, tax rates, and budgets by a county board of tax and capital projects review. Requires a referendum on bond issues and lease agreements payable from property taxes or local income taxes and that cost at least 1% of a political subdivision’s total net assessed value or $10,000,000. Permits a referendum to increase a levy in excess of the amount approved by the county board of tax and capital projects review. Replaces the authority of a county to impose an annual levy growth tax rate, a public safety tax rate, and a property tax replacement tax rate with a single rate not to exceed 1%. Increases the gross retail and use tax to 7%. Establishes the transportation study committee. Makes other changes. Makes appropriations.
* HB 1009 — Tax procedures. Among other things, legalizes some of the illegal actions taken by the Governor with respect to extending tax deadlines.
* HB 1010 — Tax procedures. Looks like a limited version of HB 1009.
Doug, I doubt the “bizarre” provision in SB13 is all that bizarre to Senator Hershman. I mean, this is the same guy who gave AT&T a gift of a telecom reform bill … so what’s giving a building to architects?
Hehe. I guess. I figured it was supposed to be a way to make the architects pay property taxes or something.
I believe the architect becomes joint owner of the *plans*, not the building.
Thanks for the clarification, but the bill’s still another example of state-level meddling in local affairs.
Regarding Senate Bill 0013 and ownership of school plans the bill digest states:
“a contract for professional services relating to construction of a facility must provide that any completed plans developed under the contract become the joint property of: (1) the person providing the professional services; (2) the school corporation; and (3) the state; and may be used by the state and any school corporation without payment to the person providing the professional services.”
I think they are playing around with the (federal) copyright law here which provides that the creator (author) of any copyrightable work owns copyright in the work unless the work was one made for hire or a written contract assigns ownership of the copyright elsewhere. It sounds like the State wants to be made a third party beneficiary of contracts between school corporations and architects and to have the freedom to use any plans created by the architects without any further payments. The State can’t just take a right to use the plans by saying so plainly in the statute since ownership is defined by the federal copyright statute, so the State is going in the back door, so to speak, by passing a law saying that the parties to the contract have to give it rights in the plans. The digest language tracks the bill language fairly closely.
I think they’ve actually made a technical mistake in the wording. They should require that the State be a joint owner in the plans AND in any copyright to the plans. Read literally the bill could be read to require only that the State becomes a joint owner of particular copies of the copyrightable work, a little like owning a copy of book, which does not give the state the right to reproduce the book. Looked at literally, the State would have the right to use a set the prints they were provided to build schools, but no right to reproduce the set of prints.
Such a result would be absurd of course, and unlikely to occur.