Senator Gill’s Remarks On Senate Bill 20/Assembly Bill A1 On Property Tax Reform February 5, 2007

For more than eight years, I have been the sponsor of legislation calling for a Special Session of the legislature to specifically tackle our state’s long standing struggle with high property taxes.

I sponsored this legislation because a Special Session was a process that could provide meaningful tax reform.

I had faith that we would do what we have been constitutionally charged to do.

I had no idea that we would be in a process like this.

Here, at the eleventh hour, at what is supposed to be the eve of reform, a so-called historical moment, after having missed a self-imposed deadline, we are now forced into a position of voting for legislation that is alleged to provide the reform that the people of this state have been desperately longing for.

We stand here on the precipice of failure because:

• In my opinion, this bill is unconstitutional in two ways. First of all, the [existing] rebate for seniors and disabled was done as part of a constitutional amendment and I do not think that constitutionally, this body has the power to extend rebates under any other conditions except those that are contained within the parameters of the amendment.
• Secondly, I feel that this bill constitutionally violates the Equal Protection Clause. We are here talking about tax credits, and the tax credits are not provided for people over a certain salary without any rational basis. So that in some of our communities where two (2) people working are making more than $250,000, simply because they make $250,000, they will receive no tax credit. That to me is a fundamental violation of the Equal Protection Clause. Further, we promised a 20% reduction off your tax bill, but we know that this is not 20% off your tax bill.
• [It is a twenty percent tax credit that only applies to the first ten thousand dollars in property taxes to be paid. Homeowners with an income up to $100,000 would be eligible for a 20% tax credit. Homeowners with an income over $100,000 and less than $150,000 would be eligible for a 15% tax credit. Homeowners with an income over $150,000 and less than $250,000 would be eligible for a 10% tax credit.] So what was promised was not in fact what was delivered
• And perhaps more importantly, we have no money to pay for this past 2008. No money.
• The 4% cap, if you examine it, is virtually nullified by the waivers and exemption for the health, safety and welfare. That is, as we know, when litigated can include almost anything.
• What is even more disturbing is that we don’t even know the numbers to determine how this bill will impact our individual districts. This is not the twenty percent reduction in property taxes that was promised and what the public was lead to believe.

Property tax reform is not something that can be tackled in a piecemeal fashion.

It must be dealt with comprehensively, and it is unequivocal that a comprehensive approach is not taking place in this chamber.

• Where is the school funding formula? We don’t even have a school funding formula to see if that would negate this expanded rebate program.
• State government spending has not been seriously addressed, which is critical to any real property tax reform.

This is not reform because there is no change in our property tax system.

This bill is just an expanded rebate program for which we have insufficient means to finance on a long-term basis.

There is no realizable recurring source of revenue to sustain this tax credit beyond 2008.

In plain language, we don’t have the money to pay for this.

The People deserve better than this. In fact, they were promised more than this; much more.

There seems to be this idea that the people will be happy if we just give them anything.

The underlying assumption is that the people are so financially strapped that they will accept anything.

If we were trying to sell this as a product, we would be in violation of the consumer fraud act.

The public’s voice has been virtually removed from this process by having every bill go straight to the Senate Floor without being referenced to a committee. It is in the committee meetings that the public is allowed to participate in the legislative process by reviewing, analyzing, and commenting on any proposed legislation.

While it was permissible for the public to comment during hearings for proposed recommendations, we closed the state house doors to them when it came to proposed legislation.

Not one bill during this Special Session has gone through the normal legislative process of being referred to the appropriate committee for review and public comment.

In fact, we had more hearings and debate on my bill for needle exchange than we have had on all of these property tax bills combined.

We did not stumble into this process.

Sadly this is what was intended.

The people deserve real reform, not rebates and gimmicks.

We have children in need of better educational resources.

We have working families who are struggling to attain affordable housing.

We have seniors who have spent a lifetime securing the homes in which they now live, who can now barely afford to live in them because of the highest property taxes in the nation.

We are the wealthiest state in the nation, but yet we can’t care for our poor.

As Senators, we are better than this process that has been carved out.

I fear that this is a veiled attempt to set the stage for the sale of state assets, and if asset modernization fails after we have passed this legislation, then we have placed the state in even more dire circumstances.

At the very least, we didn’t come down here to fool the people. This cannot be our mission here.

It seems that the only way to seriously address this issue of tax reform is to turn it over to the people through a constitutional convention, so that they can have the power to decide their future, and the future of generations to come.