Introduced in the House on March 1, 2007, to eliminate a cap on the maximum amount that tax assessors can raise the assessment of rental property due to a higher occupancy rate, if the assessment had been previously lowered as a result of a lower occupancy rate. A 2002 Supreme Court ruling (WPW vs. Troy) held that raising these assessments faster than inflation violates the Constitutional tax cap put in place by Proposal A in 1994, which limits assessment increases to five percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. This bill exempts commercial rental property from the regular property tax law, and instead subject it to a new property tax law which taxes this property at the same rate as the current law. Note: The effect of the bills in some sense would be retroactive, requiring property owners to pay higher taxes in the future to compensate governments for past tax savings under the WPW ruling
The vote was 59 in favor, 49 opposed and 2 not voting
(House Roll Call 96 at House Journal 35)
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