LVT Study Bill Will Not Advance in House

Despite having our study bill, SB 702, pass the Senate on a near unanimous vote, it failed to get a hearing amidst the chaos of the session’s end. We spoke with most members of the House Revenue Committee, including the chair, Rep. Nathanson, and received positive responses. We even managed to have her speak with the Legislative Revenue Officer, Chris Allanach, about the study’s feasibility to be conducted by his office.

Given the backlog of budgetary bills in the House Revenue Committee after the second Republican walk-out, there was no time to consider other bills. That leaves us to begin planning a strategy to re-introduce the bill in the coming year’s short session. We’ve heard from Rep. Nathanson’s office that an early submission of the bill would help improve its chances of a hearing. Another option, depending on support from her, would be to have it introduced as a committee bill. Since only three committee bills are permitted during this session, it poses competition for attention. In either case, we’ll attempt to move the LVT study bill in 2020.

We’re grateful for all of the growing support for land value taxation as a long term solution to the statewide housing supply and affordability crisis. We look forward to working with our allies to pass the study bill as soon as possible.

Kris Nelson, Legislative Director