Latest news with #SB197
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Gov. Cox's veto preserves 'lifesaver' tax relief for low-income seniors, advocates say
SALT LAKE CITY — Cheryl and Gary Johnson bought their South Salt Lake home for just $10,500 — more than 60 years ago — hoping to start a family. The young couple did just that, and the house soon became home for their three kids and, eventually, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is filled with photos chronicling the joy and heartbreak of more than six decades living there, but the Johnsons have left a more permanent mark on the home in the form of several added rooms they built in the 1980s that more than doubled the home's footprint. The couple would plant willow saplings to mark the birth of each child — the two remaining trees now stand more than 40 feet tall. Cheryl Johnson is particularly proud of the large brick fireplace and hearth her husband built from the ground up in the dining room. She said the company that installed the firebox asked if it could include photos of the hearth in its catalog, but her husband, a brick mason by trade, declined. 'I said, 'Honey, that's an honor. Why would you not want that?'' she recalls telling her husband. 'He said: 'I just don't want anyone to steal my pattern.' ... His dad was a brick and stone mason, and he took up the trade business. He loved it, and he was good. He was the best.' The home — where Cheryl Johnson, 83, now lives with her cat, Jojo — is now valued at more than $400,000, and the annual increases in property tax have stretched her budget, especially since her husband died in 2013. 'I'm so proud of my home,' she said. 'I'm going to be here the rest of my life. Nobody can take this house; and after, I'm hoping one of my kids can buy it.' Johnson is able to stay in her house in part because of the so-called Circuit Breaker program, which provides tax relief to older Utahns who may not be able to afford annual property tax payments. Those who qualify based on annual income can have a portion of their property tax bill abated, a program just shy of 10,000 Utahns have taken advantage of in recent years. 'They call it the Circuit Breaker for a reason — because, essentially, this is at the point where people are struggling to keep their lights on,' said Salt Lake County Treasurer Sheila Srivastava, who oversees the county program. It's a program that has existed for decades but one that Utah lawmakers planned to substantially change by making tax forgiveness unavailable to new applicants going forward — until the governor stepped in and vetoed the bill hours before the deadline to do so last week. Tax relief for low-income older adults comes in several forms, including the tax forgiveness program and a tax deferral program. The deferral allows homeowners to hold off on paying property taxes until they sell the house or until it is passed down to a relative, at which point the owner would be responsible for paying the back taxes. Other programs provide tax relief for those with disabilities, active duty service members and veterans, among others. Under SB197, state Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, said the Circuit Breaker program would stop taking new applicants after a couple of years, requiring low-income homeowners to rely on the tax deferral program. Those already receiving abatement would be grandfathered in, he said, meaning nobody would be kicked off of the benefits they currently enjoy. As the Circuit Breaker program is designed to prevent people who are 'house rich, cash poor' from being kicked out due to indigence, McCay argues the deferral program still provides relief, while ensuring the county is eventually paid back for those taxes when the homeowner receives the windfall from selling their property. 'If they don't have cash to contribute to the property tax system, we want to make sure that taxes are not the reason that they have to leave their home,' he told Monday. 'This person gets a tax benefit for a number of years, but then when they go to sell their home, they pay back the taxpayers, and everybody else's property tax goes down incrementally for paying those property taxes over the years.' SB197 would also have frozen property tax increases for those on the deferral program even if the value of the home went up, McCay said, adding the difference to the amount to be paid upon sale of the home. While presenting the bill to the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee in February, he argued the tax forgiveness program can be used to pass on property to heirs without having to pay taxes on it. 'The idea of protecting the inheritance of a future generation by not having someone pay property tax should concern everybody,' McCay said. 'The key thing here is making sure that low-income seniors are protected and not forced out of their homes for tax purposes.' SB197 passed on the final night of this year's legislative session after it was amended, with just hours to go, to include a prohibition on receiving Circuit Breaker benefits along with other forms of tax relief. Upon passage, several groups and individuals who had organized against the bill pivoted to urge Gov. Spencer Cox to veto it. Groups such as the Utah Housing Coalition, Crossroads Urban Center and the Utah Disability Law Center wrote to the governor arguing that the tax relief amounts to only a small expense and said the bill would hurt low-income Utahns. Tim Funk, who works in advocacy for the Crossroads Urban Center, said he has worked with the program since its inception and called McCay's bill 'perplexing.' 'I'm a person who's just short of 80 years old, and I understand what that means in terms of tax forgiveness for people. The reason I came back into working on this, about three or four years ago, was (because) it was obvious that people needed more help,' Funk said. 'It's a humble program. It's not giving away the store.' Phil Conder, the chief deputy treasurer of Davis County, and others have argued eliminating the Circuit Breaker would lead to some Utahns going without food or medication so as not to leave their heirs with a deferred tax bill upon their death. He said the current program is more cost-effective for taxpayers. 'If you were to take away the Circuit Breaker program, you're going to create a hardship on this demographic that will have to be accounted for in other ways,' Conder said. 'Do we force them into a care center that's now being paid for by different taxes? I believe it's the most cost-effective way to help these people.' Eventually, treasurers from 27 of the state's 29 counties joined the chorus of voices calling for a veto. Grand County Treasurer Chris Kauffman led a letter explaining their position. 'We are especially concerned that seniors will forgo medicine, food and other essentials in order to stay in their home and avoid burdening their children,' the letter stated. Srivastava estimated the program in Salt Lake County adds about $3 per month to the average homeowner's property tax bill — an increase she is willing to defend. 'It's going to be a really big impact for the people that it serves,' she said of the Circuit Breaker. 'They come into the office crying and struggling, and this feels like it's a lifesaver for them.' The governor appeared to agree. On March 27, he vetoed SB197 — one of only six bills he rejected this year. 'A number of our county government leaders expressed concerns and asked for a veto due to administrative challenges with this policy change,' he wrote in a letter explaining his decision. 'They also expressed concerns about the impact this would have on our senior population. I agree with both of those concerns.' Cox said he believed the bill had 'well-intentioned goals' but said it 'risks cutting off the most vulnerable of Utah's expanding senior population from a critical tax relief lifeline.' In his letter, Cox said he is 'committed to working' with lawmakers on broader reforms to the state's tax system, and efforts to change the Circuit Breaker should be undertaken as part of a 'comprehensive' overhaul. McCay was skeptical that such overhauls are possible. 'I'm optimistic in that ... we can work on the issue going forward,' he said. 'My confidence in broader tax reform is low, having seen how broader tax reform goes with the public. ... We are far better off looking at small policies and making changes as we can, and I felt like (SB197) was a great step in the right direction. However, this process requires 38 votes in the House and 15 votes in the Senate, and I fell one vote short in the executive branch.' The bill passed, initially, without enough votes to overturn Cox's veto, and McCay didn't say whether he plans to push for a veto override. Srivastava was thrilled by the veto. 'I love it so much,' she said. 'I think that hearing (Cox) say those words was a really big testament to the fact that we can come out of this in a better way and that there is hope to see our politicians and our local elected officials working together for the common good.' Although Johnson's own benefits would remain intact either way, she thinks Cox made the right call and said the veto will continue to let people have the same opportunities she has had — at least for the time being. 'It means a lot to me, and to my family,' she said. 'I don't know what I would do without it, for sure.'
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Governor signs bills providing funding for flood recovery, emergency medical services
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday signed into law Senate Bills 383 and 197, which will provide local governments with funding to recover from flooding and improve emergency medical services. "These bills provide critical tools for our municipalities to recover from devastating floods and strengthen our emergency medical services across the state," Lujan Grisham said in a statement Monday. SB 197 would allow for money from the state's Emergency Medical Services Fund to be loaned out to local governments for the purchase of EMS improvement projects. The proposal secured unanimous approval from the House and Senate. SB 383, meanwhile, allows cities to issue flood recovery bonds for rebuilding, repairing, replacing and toughening municipal property after flood damage. The bill, which went into effect immediately upon being signed into law, also passed with unanimous support in both chambers. The proposals come from a bipartisan group of lawmakers whose districts have been hit hard by natural disasters in recent years. SB 197 was sponsored by Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, and Rep. Harlan Vincent, R-Glencoe, while Sen. Candy Spence Ezzell, R-Roswell, put forward SB 383. The bills are among the first signed by Lujan Grisham following the conclusion of this year's legislative session, which ended March 22 on a mostly sour note. Lujan Grisham had already signed a couple of dozen bills from the session into law, notably including big bills related to crime and public safety, legislation to increase oversight of the Children, Youth and Families Department, and reforms to the State Game Commission. She'll have until April 11 to sign the more than 200 other bills that passed both chambers this session. Otherwise, they'll be pocket-vetoed, or subject to a de facto veto that happens when the governor doesn't act on a bill.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion: Changes to SB197 fail to protect low-income seniors
On February 14th, my op-ed was published regarding SB197, the bill that Sen. Dan McCay proposed in the Legislature that within five years would've wiped out any hope for financial relief for low-income senior property owners via Utah's four-decade-old Circuit Breaker program. Evidently, that editorial hit home. The bill was changed, but not enough to fix it. The first change was to exclusively grandfather in anyone who received relief in 2024, but that was it. No one else. A later version added folks who get approved in 2025. But again, just those particular senior Utahns could stay on. Unfortunately, punitive qualifying factors and measures were added for that exclusive group. No new applicants allowed after this year. Anyone not 66 years old by this December 31st is out. If you happen to not qualify for whatever reason, you can't get back on. The sponsor stated he wanted this bill to inspire seniors to move, to downsize and open up housing stock. Not sure where these seniors might move to that makes financial sense for them in this market, but once they do, they're off the program, as this bill states you need to be in the same residence you were in previously to continue. Another thing SB197 does is to lock in the income chart from 2024 without future adjustments for inflation, as has been the policy in the past. That $40,840 figure can be easily exceeded when minimal SSA COLA raises are granted, or when a family member needs to move in to care for their elderly parents. In January of this year, the tax commission proposed a maximum income of $42,623 for this year's Circuit Breaker and Renter Refund programs. Senator Wayne Harper's SB224, which got buried after McCay's SB197 was proposed, had proposed a $46,000 maximum income. Oddly, in SB197, renters can have a maximum household income of $46,000, but not property owners. Why the discrepancy? The $40,840 figure is too low, and being locked in will make qualifying much harder in the future. Consider that the governor's housing advisor, Steve Waldrip, proposed a $45,807 maximum in HB401 in 2022, three inflationary years ago. Yes, so much of this doesn't make any sense, and it gets worse. The new deferral programs SB197 creates are a revamped version of the failed deferral program McCay instituted two years ago that benefited only eight households. In looking over the plans, tax auditors around the state have found many obstacles and pitfalls too numerous to detail here. Some senior Utahns who have a reverse mortgage will be disqualified from deferral, while some Utahns of any age who are not financially strapped will be able to game the system and use it to take out low-interest loans for years and years to come. It's just bad policy. As long-time Chief Deputy Treasurer Phil Conder wrote to the Governor, 'I know of no County Tax Administrators in the State who support this bill. Not from an implementation perspective, financial perspective, nor compassionate perspective.' Another fallacy is that SB197 is meant to stem a program growing unsustainably. Participation in homeowner's credit actually decreased this year and now the number of households participating is fewer than in 2023. The state funding of the 2024 senior homeowner's credit amounted to only 8.6% of the entire Circuit Breaker program. For cost savings, SB197 aims at the wrong target. In 2023, another program had its benefits raised by 90%, and that has resulted in a cost increase to the counties of $22 million dollars in two years. That's where the 'growth' is. Unfortunately, SB197 was circled until the fifth version was unveiled and hurriedly passed with three hours left in the legislative session with a short debate cut off abruptly. Please promptly contact the governor's office at (801) 538-1000 or use one of these links to share your opposition to SB 197. We need county tax administrators to be able to share their accumulated wisdom and help craft a fair and useful deferral program Utahns can be proud of.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas House members scrutinize Senate plan to rehab malls with STAR bonds
Rep. Bill Sutton, R-Gardner, seen during a March 5, 2024, session of the House, questioned the merits of trying to redevelop malls that might be empty for cultural reasons. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Members of a House committee on Monday scrutinized a Senate plan to expand the use of STAR bonds to redevelop struggling malls. The proposal is part of Senate Bill 197, which would extend the state's STAR bonds program through 2028 with revisions that include the elimination of eminent domain authority and new requirements for recording visitor data. The Senate passed the bill 32-8 on Feb. 19, with eight Republicans opposed. Sen. Jeff Klemp, R-Lansing, testified before members of the House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee, where he revealed that he was responsible for adding the mall development provision to the bill. He said he had the dilapidated mall in Leavenworth in mind, and that more than a dozen other malls across the state would meet the criteria for a STAR bond project. 'The goal would be to drive in outside folks to come into that mall,' Klemp said. Several members of the committee expressed concern with including malls in the expansion of the state STAR, or sales tax and revenue, bond program, which sunsets on July 1, 2026, without legislative action. STAR bonds are an economic development tool using state and local sales tax revenue generated by a project to pay off the bonds that finance it. There are 17 STAR bond districts in the state, ranging geographically from the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum in Atchison to the Dodge City Boot Hill Museum. There are four in Kansas City, including the Kansas Speedway. Under SB 197, an existing mall would be eligible for a STAR Bond project if 50% of the space were unoccupied. The redevelopment project would require a minimum capital investment of $10 million. 'When we're talking about STAR bonds for mall rehab, what's the idea here?' asked Rep. Bill Sutton, R-Gardner. 'We're not building malls, are we? What is it? What is it we're wanting to do with these STAR bond projects, as it relates to an old mall?' Rachel Willis, director of legislative affairs for the Kansas Department of Commerce, which administers the STAR bonds program, said communities across the state are 'seeing vacant, or mainly vacant malls' that formerly had been a main attraction for the community. 'So how can we help serve them and revitalize that to become again an attraction like it once was,' Willis said. Sutton responded: 'Are we taking into consideration that the reason that they're dilapidated and empty might be a cultural issue? And further investing into a system that's out of fad doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me.' Willis said the idea was not to 'just redevelop that mall and make it a mall again.' 'It's how can we redevelop that particular space, those buildings, into an attraction that does fit our cultural needs now, based on how everyone is shopping and the experiences folks want to have within those communities,' Willis said. Among other provisions, the bill would allow the commerce secretary through Dec. 31 of this year to approve a vertical construction within an existing STAR bond project in cities with a population below 60,000. It also would eliminate the authority that city and county governments have to use eminent domain to acquire property for a STAR bond project, and prohibit the use of tax increment financing, or TIF, districts on top of a STAR bond project. Opponents to the bill objected to a new requirement that all entities within a STAR bond district record visitor data, including ZIP codes, at the point of sale — which may not be possible for some small businesses. The bill also would require the online disclosure of the project's feasibility study, financial guarantees of the prospective developer, and other data within 90 days of a project being adopted.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion: SB197 threatens the financial stability of Utah seniors
In five years, low-income seniors throughout Utah, many on fixed incomes, would no longer be able to get any tax relief on their property taxes if Sen. Dan McCay gets his way with SB 197. That's right. Read that sentence again and let it sink in. Almost 10,000 senior households in the state rely on this relief to help them get by. That could easily be 15-20,000 people. They are your parents, your elderly friends and neighbors, struggling to keep up with rising prices and medical costs while living on fixed incomes. This is the first time legislation has been proposed to destroy this senior benefit in the over 40 years it's been working for low-income senior Utahns in danger of being taxed out of their homes, which is the reason it was created by the Legislature. If SB197 passes, the fiscal note says taxpayers might save $4.55 per year in taxes, while costing seniors $930 per year in critical help. What's smarter and more compassionate? That $4.55 per year gets 204 times the return to support our seniors. I think Utahns, with a history of charity, goodwill and caring see the sense in that equation and would be willing to contribute $4.55 once a year to support our low-income seniors. Is it really worth just over a penny a day to force our grandparents from their homes due to increased costs and inflation? A better solution is Senator Wayne Harper's SB224, keeping the program intact with slight improvements to keep up with inflation and rising costs. What's amazing is that it will cost taxpayers only 68 cents per year, according to the fiscal note analysis! This is the bill the 10,000 Utah households who received this help and those Utahns who support humane tax policy need to support. A prompt call to your legislators and the governor to support SB224 is absolutely critical. This program is also essential for widows and widowers. Let's remember what happens when a spouse passes when a couple is living on Social Security: you lose the income your spouse was getting, resulting in a severe ongoing cash crunch. Many times medical issues precede the spouse's passing, often impacting the bank account these seniors rely on for co-pays, medications and higher premiums. Why is this even being proposed? Past reports showed the state's share on the Circuit Breaker program was less than 10% of the cost, with the rest being borne by Utah's counties. Sen. McCay apparently laments chipping in anything, and the fiscal note on Sen. Harper's SB224 estimates that amount will be $4.5 million, a bargain compared to what else our tax dollars go to. How is it that 15-20,000 low-income seniors don't deserve critical relief when last year, just 10,000 students were awarded 18 times that amount, $82 million, through the Utah Fits All Scholarship program? Oddly, in 2023, McCay's committee mandated an increase in costs to the counties of over three times that estimate, resulting in a $14 million cost increase in just one year. SB197 is also more costly. Many tax administrators around the state are not happy with the deferral program that allows people to not pay their taxes until ownership is transferred. They fear the unpredictability when the numbers of households deferring their taxes vary and their annual budgets fluctuate, while deferral will simultaneously create the need to hire more administrative staff to implement the program when 10,000 households are forced on to it. The deferral program was implemented in Salt Lake and Weber counties in 2023. Dozens applied, but only one household between those two counties benefited. Last year it went statewide and only seven households benefited, while about 10,000 households got homeowner's credit. This failed program is being revamped and the newest experiment is being forced onto the seniors of our state while denying them any opportunity for actual financial relief. So now you get to make the choice: show love to 10,000 senior low-income households for 68 cents per year, or reap $4.55 in yearly savings. Please call.
