Section 1 of the bill repeals a moratorium on changing a ratio for
valuation for assessment (assessment rate), which is the percentage applied to a property's actual value to determine the taxable amount upon which a mill levy is imposed. Section 2 classifies agricultural property, lodging property, and renewable energy production property as new subclasses of nonresidential property. The assessment rate for agricultural property and renewable energy production property is temporarily reduced from 29% to 26.4% for the next 2 property tax years. The law is restructured so that, if a proposed initiative to reduce the assessment rate for nonresidential property is approved by voters, then it would only apply to lodging property. Section 3 classifies multi-family residential real property as a new
subclass of residential real property. The law is restructured so that, if a proposed initiative to reduce the residential assessment rate is approved by voters, then it would only apply to multi-family residential real property. If the initiative fails, then, under section 4, the assessment rate for multi-family residential real property is temporarily reduced from 7.15% to 6.8% for the next 2 property tax years. The assessment rate for all residential real property other than multi-family property is temporarily reduced from 7.15% to 6.95% for the next 2 property tax years. Sections 5 through 8 expand the property tax deferral program to
allow any person to defer the payment of the portion of real property taxes that exceed the tax-growth cap, which is an amount equal to the average of the person's real property taxes paid for the preceding 2 property tax years for the same homestead, increased by 4.6%. The total taxes that a taxpayer may defer under this authorization is $10,000, and the taxpayer is treated like a person called into military service for purposes of the equity the person must have in the homestead to qualify for deferral and surviving-spouse eligibility.
